Trans cyclist will be allowed in Commonwealth Games

Cycling does not have a good history with doping (slight understatement there).
Unlikely to be completely resigned to history either - every year they catch someone at it, who knows how many others are doping and not getting caught.
The ethos has always seemed to be "let's see what we can get away with".

so another sporting event I will boycott along with all the sponsors products for the duration of the competition

'Is this what competitive sport was like before doping was banned and tested for? Every low life chancer taking a shot.'

Yes, and I imagine audiences went up. People love a good controversy. The only way to counter it is for everyone to stop watching it.

Is this what competitive sport was like before doping was banned and tested for? Every low life chancer taking a shot.

[quote MrsOvertonsWindow]Agreed nauticant - sport with the evident unfairness will be a key issue. It should be what's happening to children with social contagion and online coercion by adult groups running rampant but it will be sport that exposed the lunacy.
I noticed that yesterday the Mail had 3 critical articles online. I also noted how many men commented on this article about Coe's pronouncement in the Times. They now get it and are speaking out:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/8f658262-a934-11ec-b5dd-c16e85f55725?shareToken=e329e17d5ac67e9f940004d2775456e4[/quote]
This sets out coes stance on the matter.
Theres no denying it later.

So as much as I'm sad for all the women who will lose out in the near future and the grass roots level sports will almost die out ( cos what parent wants their kid to play against boys/young men)
At least we have coes own words to damn him with. Admit I'm getting pissed off with all the "kind" men who are really not kind to women.

I was thinking about this last night (slightly drunk).

So women will become invisible. They will be the cleaners and nannies and shop assistants (not makeup counters or lingerie depts though). The non ‘glam’ jobs.

Actors, sports people and faces on tv will allllll be male born. They will be the ‘female elite’ and gatekeeper what is seen as female (hideous drag queen makeup I’m seeing on women these days - bleugh). Woke me healthcare and well-being will be managed .

It’s like a bloody sci fi novel.

I'm boycotting all sports until this ends. I won't watch the Olympics, Commonwealth Games, Athletics Championships, football, rugby, cricket. I have no interest whatsoever in supporting a sector that is prepared to treat women with this level of contempt.

A win is a win.

You see them and time again coaches using dubious methods to give their squad an advantage - blood transfusions, weird and wonderful diet and ‘natural’ medications… to downright doping.

They are on the scale of ‘it’s giving them the edge’ to ‘shhhhhh, no one will notice and we will win’.

Win = medals, sponsorships, endorsements….

How can the parents, coaches, team members think this is ok?
So angry and disappointed with British Cycling, he was racing as a man!!!!

I posted this on another thread but I think it's worth repeating:

With Lia Thomas everyone is starting to see the relative lack of effort needed to win the races. WIth Bridges we see an interesting story being played out in the media. In 2020 there was this article www.skysports.com/more-sports/cycling/news/15264/12101251/emily-bridges-coming-out-as-trans-in-cycling-is-a-crucial-step-on-my-journey with this quote

"To help achieve this, I'm going to be part of research into the effect that a medical transition has on athletic performance. This will, as far as I'm aware, be the first time that an elite-level international athlete has done this. I understand this will be extremely useful research. I really want to demonstrate what effect hormone replacement therapy has on the body, and how it massively changes athletic performance in multiple ways.I know that people will have questions about fairness. I feel I have an opportunity to show that the existing eligibility rules for trans athletes in competition are appropriate."
(my bold)

Then there was this article informing the cycling world that Bridges will be in the women's races soon, but it's fair because look - there's a graph (n=1) showing a dramatic drop in performance! www.cyclingweekly.com/fitness/i-just-want-to-be-competitive-again-trans-cyclist-emily-bridges-on-preparing-to-race-in-the-female-category with these quotes:

"the sharp shock of taking part in the elite men’s crit at the Loughborough Cycling Festival at the end of May last year. “I was shelled after two laps and lapped four times,” she shakes her head, reliving the unfamiliar feeling of being resigned to defeat. Bridges finished 43rd out of 45."

"She may have gone from frontrunner to tail-ender in the course of just a few months,"

"Bridges has been participating in a study at Loughborough University to monitor these changes, as well as tracking her own data (see chart) – indicating a 13-16% drop in her power outputs across six-second, one-, five- and 20-minute durations. In light of these changes, is she content that the current rules are appropriate? “I think so, yes. The reduced testosterone has a direct effect on the main determinants of VO2max – red blood cells, haemoglobin, haematocrit – which drop to female levels within five months."

So power output has dropped by 13-16% - interestingly right in the 9-24% range of advantage of males over females in cycling events cited by Hilton and Lundberg pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33289906/.

How does that square with qualifying 4th out of 20 for the men's individual pursuit, and placing 4th overall (just out of the medal positions)?

How does that square with winning bronze in the men's team pursuit?

How does that square with winning gold in the men's points race?

All at this event www.bucs.org.uk/events-page/cycling-track-championships-2021-22.html?tab=Results+and+Programme

When the cyclist concerned is so young you have to wonder about the people in the background encouraging this, parents, coaches etc. The reaction from the general public is not going to be as universally positive as that from within captured organisations or on Twitter.

Ffs

And so we have it. A previously elite male athlete racing against the darling of womens sport. A national treasure in the sport.

We’ve been trying to talking about this for for years, warning this would happen, received abuse from people around the athlete. Mumsnet has been targeted too everytime we try and talk about this.

Well the cats out of the bag now. The whole world will know about Bridges soon enough. What an uncomfortable place to put ones child. I hope they know what they’re doing because calling people anti-trans doesn’t work when the general public agree with the people asking for fairness. It won’t shut people up anymore. There will be a UK wide conversation taking place and it can’t be stopped.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10656169/Team-GB-cycling-stars-face-losing-Olympics-places-trans-woman.html

No way will they beat Laura as it would look too bad. Might come in second but it won't be in their interest to cycle at full pelt and show how unfair it is.

I just thought to myself Bridges beats Laura Kenny there will be a big kick off because Kenny is the darling of women's cycling. But then I realised that I've lost track of how many times I thought that the next thing must be the one to tip the boat...

Tickets still available for Derby. A show of vipers will be good!
I don't care if EB doesn't win, it us the principle EB should not be in women's sports. Even the info on web says male!

EB is racing Laura Kenney on 2nd April in derby

Want to bet they won't win? Then we'll all be treated to look there's no difference etc.etc....
So hard to to cycle slower than you are capable

Whatever the outcome of these current debates might be, the net effect on improving women's status in this world will be bad, sadly. We have to spend so much energy, time and other resources just not to slip and slide backwards in time.

EB is racing Laura Kenney on 2nd April in derby

www.britishcycling.org.uk/events/details/254406/National-Omnium-Championships--Derby-GP--Velospeed-Coaching

Unfortunately shaving the choice is clear. Women will stop cycling. The federation can see exactly what happened in the states. Why do they think cycling will not be protested and dragged through the news. Why do they think women in the UK will not make their feelings known despite the UK having hate crimes laws. The sport’s reputation will suffer.

They cannot say they care about women and then make a decision based on finances that is so clearly anti-woman. It will not help them in the end.

I worked in elite cycling for about a decade. Staff at the national and home country federations are not comfortable with this and are worried that women will leave the competitive side of the sport but feel unable to speak out. If Welsh Cycling select Bridges for Birmingham it will be partly for money - Welsh Cycling get funding for medals at the CG the same way BC does for the olympics. It doesn’t have a lot of money - just some from active travel, minor sponsorship deals, a cut of membership income from BC, so funding from CG wins is very important to them.

Women's sport is meaningless to most people

That may be true in some sports, although it's changing a lot for things like football. But it's definitely not the case in many others. Tennis, athletics, gymnastics, swimming etc have had high-profile female categories and stars for decades.

'The world will soon see'

They see what they want to see. It's been happening for almost 20 years, particularly in golf and cycling, several high placed transwomen there, but up to and including the Tokyo Olympics. The next push is to remove all hormone-lowering rules. Women's sport is meaningless to most people, they glance at the occasional champion smiling on TV and think 'she's pretty' or 'she's not very pretty'. People don't like 'politics' or 'moaners'.