Austin Killips (center) celebrates winning the UCI 2.2 Women's Gila Tour Credit: Gila Tour
The spectacle of Austin Killips, the biological male who won the Women's Tour of the Gila, is the latest expression of a conspiracy of silence that reaches the pinnacle of world sport. The prevailing opinion in cycling is that Killips, who at 27 only started playing the sport in 2019 before embarking on hormone replacement therapy, should not have even been near the New Mexico peloton, let alone on the podium. And yet it happened because it was just that no one at any level had the smarts or the will to stop it.
As tempting as it was to criticize Tour of the Gila for allowing Killips to compete, the organizers had their hands tied. Their event is sanctioned by USA Cycling, who are in turn accountable to the International Cycling Union (UCI), the sport's world governing body, which has ruled that transgender riders are eligible to compete in women's races if they drop their testosterone levels below 2.5. nanomoles. per liter for two years. It's a ridiculous rule, not least because one of the viewpoints it clearly defies is that of women who lose.
Last summer, Marion Clinier, a former world track and road champion from France, presented a survey to the UCI showing that 92% of female drivers under no circumstances wish to race against trans women. Still, that wasn't enough for the UCI's largely male committee, which settled on testosterone suppression as a convenient fantasy. And here comes Killips, who has documented the hormone treatment in an online blog called 'Oestro Junkie' and is now up for an £8,000 prize for winning the women's category, not to mention a 'Queen of the Mountains' bonus.
Killips could be next in the Tour and the Olympics
A straight line can be drawn between this New Mexico desert race and the Paris Olympics next summer. Few who followed the rise of Killips expected the story to end there. Inga Thompson, a three-time Olympic cyclist, considers Killips the favorite in this month-long Joe Martin race in Arkansas, from where the lean could start for both the Women's Tour de France and a spot on Team USA at the 2024 Games. /p>
Of course, one can assume that the authorities will intervene before then. Undoubtedly, the injustice of the young Mexican Marcela Prieto, who took second place in the Tour of the Gila, towards Killips, a post-pubertal man, is so obvious and inexcusable that it cannot be repeated, especially on the Olympic stage. But if you think the UCI is useless on the issue of transgender people, just wait until you meet their counterparts at the International Olympic Committee.
The suits in Lausanne are so sleepy behind the wheel that in the midst of a controversy involving Laurel Hubbard, a New Zealand weightlifter born male who took the place of a biological female at the Tokyo Games at age 43, Dr Richard Budgett, IOC Medical Director, said: “Everyone agrees that transgender women are women.”
Naturally, many women do not agree with anything like this. Nearly two years later, the reminder of Budget's remark still haunts Thompson. «If you're willing to lie to me about basic biology,» she says, «then you're willing to lie to me about anything.» With the IOC so out of control, one wonders how many more prizes and how much money female athletes must lose before President Thomas Bach stands up for them.
“Sport will move from ‘moments’ to ‘moments’. until enough people respect women's rights'
Killips' victory has already been presented as cycling's «Leah Thomas moment», mirroring the scandal that erupted when Thomas, who was born a man and ranked 554th in the U.S. men's 200 yard freestyle, moved into the women's event and won national championship. collegiate final. As Ross Tucker, the South African sports scientist who played a key role in convincing World Rugby to ban transgender athletes from women's competition, put it: Enough people respect women's rights. Then I swam, now I ride a bike. The only question is, is cycling aware this time around, or does it need more time?»
Thompson has witnessed enough spineless behavior and seen herself portrayed as transphobic enough times for daring to speak out, foreseeing any noble change, of course. But after four years of fighting UCI politics, she notices a change in the atmosphere, a sense that the cyclists are deeply concerned about the Killips situation, but are being discouraged by both teams and sponsors from coming out of hiding. “As far as I understand, almost all women are unhappy with this, but are forced to remain silent,” she says.
For now, the implicit assumption of recumbent cycling leaders is that women will just stand by and watch as biological males take away the glory of what should be a protected category. But there is a resistance movement. Seeing Killips atop the desert podium may finally be a signal to the sport to accept the immutable biological reality and stop using women as dissenting pawns in a shameful game of male privilege.
Свежие комментарии