UCI Limits Some Transgender Athletes from Competing in International Races
Following a meeting of the Management Committee of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) on July 5, the UCI made a decision to rewrite the rules on the participation of transgender athletes in international competitions. In its press release the UCI says: "From now on, female transgender athletes who have transitioned after (male) puberty will be prohibited from participating in women's events on the UCI International Calendar – in all categories - in the various disciplines."
For international Masters events a Male/Open category will be created where "any athlete who does not meet the conditions for participation in women's events will be admitted without restriction."
The new ruling comes into force from July 17, with the UCI leaving the door open for these to change as it says the rules "may change in the future as scientific knowledge evolves."
In the press release announcing its decision the UCI also adds that it will begin talks on co-financing research programmes studying "changes in the physical performance of highly-trained athletes undergoing transitional hormone treatment" with other members of the "international sporting movement."
 | First of all, the UCI would like to reaffirm that cycling - as a competitive sport, leisure activity or means of transport - is open to everyone, including transgender people, whom we encourage like everyone else to take part in our sport. I would also like to reaffirm that the UCI fully respects and supports the right of individuals to choose the sex that corresponds to their gender identity, whatever sex they were assigned at birth. However, it has a duty to guarantee, above all, equal opportunities for all competitors in cycling competitions. It is this imperative that led the UCI to conclude that, given the current state of scientific knowledge does not guarantee such equality of opportunity between transgender female athletes and cisgender female participants, it was not possible, as a precautionary measure, to authorise the former to race in the female categories. |
| The UCI Management Committee has taken note of the state of scientific knowledge, which does not confirm that at least two years of gender-affirming hormone therapy with a target plasma testosterone concentration of 2.5 nmol/L is sufficient to completely eliminate the benefits of testosterone during puberty in men. In addition, there is considerable inter-individual variability in response to gender-confirming hormone therapy, which makes it even more difficult to draw precise conclusions about the effects of such treatment. Given the current state of scientific knowledge, it is also impossible to rule out the possibility that biomechanical factors such as the shape and arrangement of the bones in their limbs may constitute a lasting advantage for female transgender athletes. Taking these findings into account, the UCI Management Committee considered the interests of transgender athletes in being able to take part in sporting competitions against those of athletes in the female category, which is considered a protected class. In this context, the UCI Management Committee concluded, considering the remaining scientific uncertainties, that it was necessary to take this measure to protect the female class and ensure equal opportunities. |
Read the UCI's full press release here. The UCI has included a document written by its own Medical Director Xavier Bigard in its announcement.
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Children cannot make life changing decisions for themselves until they are deemed old enough to understand the ramifications of their decisions. This limitation is applied pretty evenly across most choices a child can make. Laws even limit the choices a parent can make for a child in some cases.
All these laws and provisions existed and were deemed fair and reasonable before early transition was even a consideration. Enforcement of existing laws, long judged as fair and reasonable, is not at all the same as trying “erasing trans people” anymore then traffic laws are trying to make you late for work.
All people in society live within restrictions that are deemed necessary and beneficial for society.
Not saying society and the majority are always right, but just because you disagree with a law or an accepted norm doesn’t mean that it is malicious or it exists to defeat you.
This is a rarity and unhelpful anecdotal evidence.
Talk to RA about it.
There is a reason top pro women's football teams always get smoked by half decent YOUTH men's teams. And why pro women's teams don't regularly train with and against good men's teams or join in much, even to train. And it's not because they don't want to get better are elevate their levels.
It doesn't work like that. They don't get better than their female counterparts who only play with women.
But alas, I am a straight white dude and have no real skin in the game, so it's silly for me to commentate on matters that only matter to female athletes and our transgender friends.
this is one of the scourages of our time. don't do this. Everyone has a right to form and voice an opinion on any subject, at all times. period. Anyone that says someone else doesn't have a "right" to commentate on something, is the baddie.
Everyone has skin in the game, because you have to live in the society in which these issues weigh rather heavy.
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
@skiandmtbdirtbag: To paint a better visual.
[Reply]
I also belong in the "straight, white dude" category, but also happen to be a husband and the father of a little girl. I'd be failing my duty towards them if I was to stand down based on my personal identity.
That's just a very convenient way some people found to silence others
Attacking the person instead of the argument is as classic as it is weak.
I have done many men's road races or crits with women in the fields. In the US at least, they let women "cat down" in men's fields (a cat2 woman can race a cat 3 mens race). By that rational, any trans rider is more than welcome to race in the mens field.
I bet the whackadoodles on here that believe it’s their business to comment on matters that more directly impact women and our transgender friends are the same ones that feel they need to protect their “sisters, daughters, wives” by limiting what reproductive care is available to them.
"reproductive care" Has ZERO to do with killing babies, fetus', or a "lump of cells", no matter how much the left wants us to think it does. You can spout whatever you want, you, nor the left, have the right to change the meaning of words.
does matter. Even if it's wrong @Cheddar420:
Because I could not afford carbon.
Then the UCI came for the Inner Bar Ends, and I did not speak out—
Because I did not have any bar ends.
Then the UCI came for the supertuck, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not that flexible.
Then the UCI came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Trans people represent such a miniscule fraction of society and trans athletes a similarly miniscule proportion of the trans population, a fraction of a fraction. The reason such a small issue gets so much traction (check the # of comments) is because, from most people's perspectives, it feels like a deep threat to one of the first aspects of their identity and fighting to maintain your long-held beliefs seems relatively simple and straight forward compared to confronting the real, growing, complex threats to our existence as a species.
My suggestion - as a trans person who is continually baffled by the disproportiante air time non-trans people give to genitals - get on yer bike.
If you're really as worried about women as so many of you claim, focus on actual threats to their survival. A handful of trans athletes are not that.
Not only was she not recognized as the World Champ in her sport, she was also made out to be some kind of a bigot for saying she didn't agree with MtF racers in track cycling. Which in hindsight, is obviously ridiculous if you know anything about track cycling....
I've always thought you were a person of great technical ability which is why I wrote what I did, you know, science.
Do you have more information on this?
Yet.
I think everyone here is pro women and pro women getting more and more of the market share, but it must be earned just like them instead. Bill Burr has a couple of good comedy sketches about this regarding the WNBA..
I'll wait my downwards.
You are welcome to sponsor an all all female team and put as much & $$ as you feel is sufficient. Pretty negative attitude there. I stand by my posts.
Rubber side down man
You have a long history here; and you are want to offer your deep and broad understanding and experience of of the past 30 years of professional and amateur racing as gravitas to add to your arguments.
I feel though that you, and the wider community here, would benefit if could take on board evidence from outside your own personal experience when contributing, adding to the gravitas that your comments have attributed to them..
Here's one report that I read a while back that I recommend you take a look at; it offers a perspective on the extent to which funding and support affect elite female athletes compared to male athletes at various levels and age groups.
If you could be so good as to give me your response to its conclusions, I would be grateful.
law.duke.edu/sports/sex-sport/comparative-athletic-performance
It's long and heavy on the science in places, however, I recommend pages 85 to 93.
scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4849&context=lcp
It sounds like you already have your mind made up but if you're genuinely curious, there's lots of worthwhile reading you could check out to dig into the complexity a bit more.
Brian: Okay everyone, good work last week. Lets keep that same energy going here as we move into our next Sprint. Same as last week, Levy will continue his quest in searching for Extraterrestrial Life. Ed, I am going to have you take a couple of his topics to write for this one.. (Hands Paper to Ed Spratt)
Ed: Fuuuuuuuuuuuu...
(CUT SCENE)
That was brought up in a great interview between KJ and Lance about this very subject...good listen on YT.
I love a good pedantic argument. Almost as much as a Bun Fight.
Genetically speaking there is no 'between genders' just some strange anatomy. But your muscles all know they are either XX or XY.
And yes, I'm aware of things like complete androgen insensitivity syndrome, wherein a woman's like Jamie Lee Curtis is actually genetically XY, but a perfectly formed and developed woman. But that's an incredibly rare situation and as she was born a woman, developed as a woman, only a genetic test can tell she is XY, we'll for all sport organizations she IS a woman and her body knows it's a woman's body as she is completely insensitive to androgens in her body. Not transgender, just a woman with a weird genetic test result.
Not sure how anyone can pretend anything else.
And I don't mean to be rude regarding your friend, and I'm going to assume that for the people that are some forms of different body developmentally that life can be hard. But life is either male, or female when it comes to humans, no matter your wishes.
Yeah, I knew they would have to for U23 and elite because they score UCI points at Nationals. The category racing is probably going to still be open game.
@skiandmtbdirtbag : All good.
I posted this a couple days ago, but it got deleted. I assume it was deleted because I used Kate’s birth name and someone accused me of “deadnaming,“ but in the context it was necessary as Kate’s results prior to transitioning are listed under the name used at the date the race occurred… the birth name which we are apparently not allowed to utter.
Like why are you even here?
Go to a pride march or something.
In the meanwhile people die with hunger, there are poverty increase even in the richest countries… the gap increase…
and War still happening
For me this issue is a cover up to something bigger…
We are Only 80 years after the 2 world war, unfortunately I don’t think Humans are that nice and that worried about each others feelings… The fight for power still prevails!
of these comments. Any hints of transgender athletes in élite competition previously would have a comment deleted immediately in the past. Bravo Pinkbike, like the UCI you allow reason to prevail
Americans when arguing about gun control, religion, environmental topics: "mumuh, but what about FrEeDoM!!!!"
Can anyone tell me what the heck this means?
There has ever only been 2 genders.. biological male and biological female... I can't see this changing any time soon and I think science needs to start realising this.
but this quote is non sens
"I would also like to reaffirm that the UCI fully respects and supports the right of individuals to choose the sex that corresponds to their gender identity, whatever sex they were assigned at birth"
Sex is gender. Gender is not a social construct
A man has balls and a penis
A women has boobs, a uterus and a vagina
Biological fact
It is not terrorism to fight against system-intrensic racism that leads to death.
Wtf.
www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings-database
www.statista.com/statistics/1124036/number-people-killed-police-ethnicity-us
www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-data-racial-murder-idUSKCN24I2A9
www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/blacks-whites-police-deaths-disparity
Did you read your own sources? The reuters link says this:
"According to the [2018] FBI’s data, 8% of the reported murders of Black people were committed by whites....and 88.9% by blacks."
Enough internet for today
The propagating and indoctrinating of distorted ideologies / religion, ushered buy a minority of misfits and delusional people with an agenda to dismantle the moral compass of society; thus, to control with force and intolerance, seeking to abolish the current governing rule of law which they deem unconstitutional, unfair and prejudice to their particular lifestyles and concepts, which are radical to the livelihood and prosperity of all Human beings in opposition to their movement.
The reality is that a small group of males in the 14% of the American population that is black, are responsible for an insanely high percentage of the violence (rape, murder, assault, aggravated robbery) against everyone, including one another.
2. Will the competitors in this new class be provided equal broadcast time to allow for equal sponsorship opportunities?
3. What happens when a competitor whose only source of income is gone, or whose family abandons them, or receives hate mail or death threats or an endless string of other misfortunes because they were outed by being forced into the open category?
Great job “protecting”. What a coward’s way out.
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
2. The broadcast time would be the same. All athletes are in this same boat. If you can’t compete with you biological counterparts, then yes, you don’t have an intrinsic right to be there. Every athlete should have a backup financial plan. I don’t see how it’s fair if they can’t compete in an open class they can take prize money away from a women’s class.
We are trying to protect women and find a best solution for trans people to compete. There will probably not be a perfect solution. If you want to deny that trans women have an unfair advantage against women, then we will never be able to have a healthy discussion on the matter.
They are coming for the women sports. So we are speaking out.
Where your girls stand a chance is that indoor soccer is run by a private company. So walking off the field and refusing to register for next season will absolutely make an impact. I doubt they could ban you, as most indoor places are barely hanging by a thread. Our local indoor place would quickly go out of business if they couldn’t field enough teams for a season.
There was never going to a solution that made everyone happy here, but this is probably the best solution.
There is a big focus on testosterone and I trust we all know that this is a hormone everyone produces yet male individuals typically produce more of it. There is this bunch of experts apparently who decided what the testosterone level of females is supposed to be. So sure of themselves that they even need to enforce it on born female athletes. The born female South African athlete Caster Semenya refused to take those testosterone blockers and recently, the European Court for Human Rights indeed claimed it was discrimination by the committee to request her to take these blockers and lower her natural testosterone levels. So yes, testosterone does give a competitive advantage in many sports yet having some experts decide what's normal by their theories rather than by reality is a slippery slope. Yes, hard work goes a long way yet most competitive advantage still comes from having suitable genetics. If higher testosterone levels give you an advantage in racing, then those who perform well at the top will have that higher testosterone level too. I haven't heard of a case where a volleyball or basketball player was banned from competition because of being tall, giving them an unfair advantage against those who are short.
I may have to read into the part about the "shape of the bones in the limbs" and what advantage it would possibly make as I don't quite get it. Yes women with narrower hips are faster at running hence trans-women will likely have this advantage too. Yet at the top level, they'll already be competing against women with the build that works well for the discipline (hence have relatively narrow hips too). Not sure whether that's what they were aiming at though so I'll have to read into it. Also because outside maybe cyclocross (where riders might run a bit), I don't quite see what makes typically male bone shapes better for cycling. This is the UCI after all, this is about cycling.
So what do we have now? Just because someone has been identified as born-man or born-woman (and with no spectrum in between) doesn't mean this is exactly the case and, in the case of an XY-gened person who happened to not get the testosterone level up during that certain stage of pregnancy, no one would ever know. The other part of the story is about testosterone. As they point out themselves, not everyone reacts similarly to similar concentrations of testosterone and not every born-female produces similar concentrations of testosterone during and after puberty. What I read from the UCI statement isn't so much that they're sure that it is unfair for trans athletes to race in female competition, it is just that they're unsure whether it is fair. Considering these top athletes put so much of their life and hard work in competing at this level, I'd rather see regulations being made on something they're sure about rather than something they're unsure about.
As for this comment section, I understand for many people some basic high school biology is all the complexity they can handle and that's all fine. But their limitations should only limit themselves. It shouldn't affect real people in this real world that is just a little more complex and nuanced.
Yes, the top level females at any sport are those that both a) work the hardest and b) often have genetic advantages. But that doesn’t mean they can produce the same results as top level males.
None of this really has anything to do with biological men in sports. Your evidence that men won't out compete women in sports is greatly overshadowed by the reality of biological men ARE beating women in their sports. Almost daily there is a new article about a transgender female beating out women. How come I don't see articles about trans-men winning in men’s sports?
You don't need to be an expert in biology to see this affects real women in this real world. It is not as complex and nuanced as you would like it to be.
Look at the 2020 Olympics. Jolanda did 20.55km in 1:15, Pidcock did 28.25km in 1:25. That 7.7km difference doesn't fit into 10 minutes of riding. Similar thing across other races, disciplines, etc.
You're not going to beat the men.
"You see, man made the cars
To take us over the road
Man made the train
To carry the heavy load
Man made the electrolight
To take us out of the dark
Man made the boat for the water
Like Noah made The Ark
This is a man's, man's, man's world
But it would be nothing, nothing
Without a woman or a girl"
James Brown
I don't know what the right course of action is. But I do think that the UCI hasn't spent enough time figuring it all out to be able to come to a conclusion/ruling just yet. I have a feeling that the solution may come down to some sort of strength/weight ratio ruling, like weight classes for boxing, wrestling, and MMA.
Just my $0.02 though.
My question is: Who is going to support women and their athletic opportunities, since your type so clearly will not?
mum was one , always showed me the light brother
Go ride your bike / discuss bike related shit or gtfo.
So ,i'm not voting up or down just to be sure we see this eye to eye
Im sorry this excludes some people, but I’m even more sorry a generation of female sport has missed out on fair competition.