The British Cycling Federation will ban transgender women from competing in top-tier women's events, it said Friday in a statement outlining the new policy that aims to prioritize "fairness".
The body will divide the races into "open" and "female" categories. Transgender women and men, non-binary people and men will be able to compete in the "open" category. The female category will be reserved for people born female.
The Federation's previous regulations required runners to demonstrate low testosterone levels for 12 months prior to competition in order to participate. But in April, the federation suspended this regulation after a transgender woman, Emily Bridges, wanted to participate in the national omnium championships in the women's category after she had been declared ineligible by the International Cycling Union (UCI).
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Emily Bridges (@emilybridges45_)
Bridges condemned the new policy, calling it a "violent act" and calling the Federation a "failed organization" on social media.
Paris 2024: transgender participation is "a difficult subject" for Amélie Oudéa-Castéra
The new policy is the result of nine months of reflection and consultation involving stakeholders, including cyclists, including Team Great Britain. This research has shown that people who go through puberty while being male have a definite advantage in terms of performance, an advantage that cannot be completely mitigated by testosterone suppression, the Federation explained.
"Studies indicate that even with testosterone suppression, transgender women who transition after puberty retain a performance advantage," the body said.
No date has yet been set for the implementation of the new regulation, with the governing body saying only that it will take place before the end of the year.
For its part, the UCI allows transgender women who have experienced male puberty to participate in women's events if their testosterone levels have been reduced to 2.5 nanomoles per litre in the previous two years.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Emily Bridges (@emilybridges45_)
At the end of 2021, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) abandoned the idea of establishing uniform guidelines on the criteria for the participation of intersex and transgender athletes, leaving the hand to the various international federations.
Since then, for example, World Athletics has decided to exclude transgender people from women's athletics competitions. The International Swimming Federation has decided to ban people who have had male puberty from participating in women's competitions.
