Martina Navratilova states the obvious

[Glinner]

twitter.com/Martina/status/1075193284660785153

At first I was delighted to see thisat last a big name in women's sport is speaking up! but then I got angry all over again that this utterly obvious point has to be explained to an adult, in this case, a Guardian journalist. It boggles the mind.

@misscockerspaniel

That is indeed the original article about these two athletes, whose identity nobody seems to know, except that they are probably 100m, 200m or 400m runners, and already seemed to have competed at European Championship level.
It is the crass secrecy and arrogance which angers me so much, that the authorities are keeping their identities hidden to protect their privacy, yet do not care that they have breached the trust and safeguarding of all the women athletes on the GB team, plus of course women athletes from competing countries.

AndyOldLabou I thought that it was more likely to be middle-distance runners, on the basis of what has been said about how and why Caster S. is able to dominate .

Well, I'd say that adviser knows a whole lot more about gender than they do about sport. Or perhaps it's just a very unflattering photo

And I just can't see how the inclusion of these two trans woman (I note the article referred to them simply as women in at least one place) is a human rights victory. It means that somewhere in the UK are two women-women who won't get a shot at the Olympics. I wonder who/where they are?

Jane Clare Jones' breakdown of the whole thing is excellent as always, although how she had the stomach to plough through McKinnon's endless and vile tweets I don't know.

She's absolutely right. McKinnon plays the whole thing as Mr Murdstone, or the head of the school in Jane Eyre, from beginning with bellows of Heretic! Recant! to the severe teaching of a lesson in how Martina should prostrate herself and beg for absolution.

Skin crawling. Utterly skin crawling. As Jones says, fgs, how can anyone look at this and not see it for exactly what it is. Religious zealotry reaching the point of insanity. Dickens was parodying shit like this nearly 200 years ago.

Can anyone imagine a white person who identifies as black displaying such a sense of entitlement as these men who identify as women? It just wouldn't happen. I know there was that one very high profile case, but she wasn't bullying and entitled in the way that these guys are.
It is an outrageous colonisation.

This: So, Martina's latest tweet.

"Not to worry - I will keep fighting the fight for fairness, just not with people like Rachel who only knows how to attack. And who apparently fell off her bike after gloating and celebrating winning a race- so a bad sport to boot:). I am not going anywhere:)"

7:22 AM - 23 Dec 2018

They have to bring their testosterone down to 10nM to compete against women. Female testosterone averages 0.8. Lowering testosterone is a red herring, and of course ignores the biological difference. That is 1000% higher. If a female had double the average women's testosterone, that's still 400% higher. In.what world is this considered fair? If we are going to make testosterone an issue, they need to bring it down to 2.0

Sorry I meant 625%

I think we need to get rid of the word transition because it's sends the message that you can change into a person of the opposite sex

you can't

Martina's back about an hr ago

Martina Navratilova (@Martina) Tweeted:
Good point because nobody cared to explain specifically what is what. I got attacked and had no idea where the stuff was coming from. I will educate myself on things but meantime all I ever wanted and still want is to make sure we have a level playing field for women athletes. twitter.com/Martina/status/1077295881622302720?s=17

James Dreyfus has now tweeted in support of Martina.

@Wordthe

Correct, it is is such simple science - something which transpeople wish to ignore.

I really hate this concept if educating self/being educated/educating others. I see it in some hippie circles im in as if they are the superior ones who hold the truth and their purpose is to educate others. Not at all engage or accept ithers might have a valid opinion.

The worst are the ‘I’m not here to educate you - educate yourself!’ lot, like I’m supposed to brainwash myself because it’s beneath them. Just fuck off!

Yep! I always wqnt to reply (whatever the topic ) that I HAVE educated myself, im3 reasonabky intelligent yet look! I have a different view!

The thing is though once someone's been lectured into “educating themselves” they end up on MN saying “shit! How has this happened?”

I can’t see this ending the way the TRAs are imagining.

all I ever wanted and still want is to make sure we have a level playing field for women athletes

Yay for Martina! Now please, Martina, take it all the way to the top.
No need to engage further with the narcissistic bottom feeders like RM, you have the ear of the people that make these decisions.

We’re here. We’re rooting for you.

The thing is though once someone's been lectured into “educating themselves” they end up on MN saying “shit! How has this happened

Ha! Yes! They may as well have signs that say ‘this way to the radicalisation portal

As someone who has done 'masters' events in a couple of sports (although not cycling), I think it is important to state the obvious and say that a Master's World Championship in an age-group category is quite different to a proper World Championship. At a master's event, there tend to be relatively few competitors in each category. Competitors will be self-financed and responsible for their own travel and accommodation and this tends to limit participation. Successful older athletes (i.e. those over 35!) tend to have retired from the sport, too.

Looking at the website for the UCI World Championships 2018 held in Los Angeles, it looks like there were just 8 other competitors in McKinnon's event. Indeed, it also looks like there were so few competitors that they merged the F35-39 and the F40-44 categories.

In total, and across all women's events and age groups there were fewer than 100 cyclists competing. The video of the competition is on the website. There are almost no spectators and the velodrome is empty. The link is here: mastersworldsla.com/

McKinnon's fastest winning time was 12.554. In the equivalent men's race, it was 11.227. McKinnon would have come dead last in the heats of the M35-39 sprint.

There is a considerable difference between calling yourself a 'World Master's Champion' (although McKinnon tends to leave out Master's) in an event with only eight other competitors and being the best tennis player in the world for many years, winning countless Grand Slams in a truly global sport like tennis. I had the pleasure of watching Martina Navratilova play at Wimbledon several times and she was an incredible - truly incredible - athlete.

Martina is wonderful and has always been such a great ambassador for her sport and for women's sport in general.

RM is currently peak transing the world so that makes me very happy. It is excruciating to watch but also brilliant as this mediocrity is showing everyone what is happening and people are pretty shocked.

RMcK is STILL going on about Martina - it’s an obsession- are they going to carry on until everyone in the world signs something to say RMcK is right and the bestest person ever. I’ll be honest and say I find them scary. They are behaving like an abuser and a bully and I’m jolly glad they are not teaching anyone I know at university!

I’ll be honest and say I find them scary. They are behaving like an abuser and a bully and I’m jolly glad they are not teaching anyone I know at university!

Indeed.

Cyclepath I will tuck that one away for future use!