Cycling has set new stricter limits that will ensure athletes wait longer after the gender transition before competing.
Following the International Olympic Committee’s decision that sport should lead to transgender inclusion at elite levels, the International Cycling Union has set a benchmark that can be followed by other sports that still focus on the subject.
Lia Thomas sparked a debate about transgender sport, with swimming about to offer new guidelines after cycling. Credit: AP
On Sunday, FINA, the governing body of swimming, will issue its own revised policy when its World Championships begin in Budapest. Along with cycling, it has been at the center of a heated transgender debate, as it deals with a high-profile case.
The hand of cycling was forced by Emily Bridges, a runner whom the UCI prevented from competing in the British Omnium Championships in Derby in April. At the time, the 21-year-old was eligible to ride, but amid threats from a boycott from her competitors, the ICU blocked her involvement and British Cycling put a line on its transgender protocols and returned to the board. drawing.
Bridges had set youth records and was a winner of the men’s points race at the college level. He had planned to meet Laura Kenny, the British royalty of cycling, but now he will not be able to compete until at least 2023 after the UCI hardens what was already a narrow corridor.
The levers available to sports administrators are limited, but time and testosterone levels are the two keys, although there are still speculations as to whether the latter is too clumsy an instrument to properly measure equity.
The ICU blocked transgender cyclist Emily Bridges from competing in the British Championships earlier this year. Credit: Getty
With that in mind, the ICU increased its transition period from 12 months to two years before an athlete could compete, while lowering its testosterone threshold to 2.5 nanomoles (nmol) per liter instead of five. . He insisted that the movement was based on recent science, not politics, and should allow athletes in transition to make “adjustments in muscle mass and muscle strength / power.”
“Given the important role that strength and muscular power play in the performance of cycling, the ICU has decided to increase the transition period with low testosterone from 12 to 24 months,” the ICU said in a statement.