British Cycling has suspended its transgender policy, pending a review, due to discrepancies in its rules and those of the International Cycling Union (UCI).
British Cycling’s rules on transgender and non-binary participation were brought under the spotlight in recent weeks by the case of Emily Bridges.
Bridges was due to compete in the women’s event at the British National Omnium Championships, only for the UCI to inform British Cycling that Bridges was ineligible to compete three days beforehand.
Officials as senior as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson have weighed in on the issue, while a group going by the name Union Cycliste Feminine – representing 76 retired Olympians, elite cyclists, scientists and researchers – called on the UCI to rescind its existing rules and implement eligibility criteria for the female category “that is based on female biological characteristics.”
Sara Symington, head of the Olympic and Paralympic programmes at British Cycling, is among the signatories of that letter.
UCI regulations require transgender athletes to provide a written and signed declaration that their gender identity is female and demonstrate to the satisfaction of an expert panel that the concentration of testosterone in their serum has been less than five nanomoles per litre for a period of 12 months.
It is under these rules that the UCI informed British Cycling that Bridges could not race in the women’s omnium.
The difference whereby athletes would be allowed to race domestically, but not at international level led to the decision to suspend the British Cycling policy.
Bridges’ case has brought further scrutiny to trans women’s participation in women’s sport.
In a statement last week, Bridges claimed to “still have little clarity around the finding of my ineligibility”.
“I have provided both British Cycling and UCI with medical evidence that I met the eligibility criteria for transgender female cyclists, including that my testosterone level has been far below the limit prescribed by the Regulations for the last 12 months,” Bridges said.
Bridges also criticised Britain’s media, saying she had been “relentlessly harassed and demonised by those who have a specific agenda to push”.
UK Sport chief executive Sally Munday praised Bridges for showing “incredible courage” and “huge determination”.
Munday called on governing bodies to be “flexible and accommodating in their approaches” to transgender participation.
