Women’s cycling now to be decimated/ women silenced

[girasol]

And so it continues….
Fears for future of female sport as transgender cyclist rides in

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/11533398-af91-11ec-8b8c-0207c0fd6104?shareToken=2a3f87a55e25652043a6b9deb1a6eb89

Oh and as to the original point- it is about medals. The more medals, the more money. It’s that simple.

Sean Ingles (The Guardian) reporting that it’s a technicality as Bridges needs to see out the term of their UCI registration before it can be changed, and that there was talk of a boycott by GB women.

Great ratio replies to this British Cycling's tweet

@Nomoreusernames1244 - just a slight update to your post:

NGBs are audited - both internal audit and by UKSport and Sport England/Scotland/Wales. They also have to complete an annual assurance process and are scored on this. Funding is ringfenced - UK Sport funding goes to the performance programme, Sport Council funding goes to participation programmes. BC membership income mainly goes on insurance for grass roots racing. Salaries are split between various bits depending on the staff role. They also get income (either cash or value in kind goods) from sponsors. As far as I remember athletes are given their funding grants from UKS. Funding is means tested. If they earn over a certain amount from personal sponsorship (Eg Laura Kenny becoming the face of Ride London, for example) then she won’t be lottery funded. Sports have to report to funders quarterly - participation figures or race results. BC also have an AGM where councillors from the regions (the real grass roots) approve the annual report and accounts, appoint auditors and accountants, and question the board of directors and management team. It can get lively - not everyone is of the same opinion. Different genders, home countries, different disciplines etc all make for a complicated sport. This has been an almighty fuck up and no doubt will be brought up at the next AGM towards the end of the year.

@SweatyChamoisPad

Thanks for that. I have been searching for years to find some sort of published auditing process or accounting.

It’s good to hear that there are checks and balances- from what i have seen in the elite area i’m interested in there are very few, particularly with regard to which athletes they fund. They seem to be able to just pick who they want, with no regard to level or achievement standard, beyond who the NPD thinks will medal at the olympics. Perhaps it’s sport dependent?

@TheAbbotOfUnreason

Sean Ingles (The Guardian) reporting that it’s a technicality as Bridges needs to see out the term of their UCI registration before it can be changed, and that there was talk of a boycott by GB women.

A technicality? Never heard a penis called that before.

@Nomoreusernames1244 in my experience it’s a combination of several things, and can be different for different sports. Most will have a pathway - in the old days it was classified as Start, Potential, and Performance. Athletes can be spotted early and put on the pathway (and this can be very early depending on what age an athlete matures for a particular sport - swimmers can mature as early as late teens or early twenties for example). Or, they can be spotted at regional events, club scouts, or late starters in the university system. For gaps in the programme they can run Talent ID things, like the Tall Sports initiative UK Sport did before London 2012, to try and identify girls for rowing, handball, volleyball etc. Entry to the programmes is done by a combo of results, sport science, and also future ambition - some sports run centralised programmes where the athletes are live and train around a central hub. These don’t usually allow an athlete to go to uni - “there’s time for that afterwards” is the usual approach, although there are sometimes exceptions for very intelligent athletes. So if you want to go to uni, you probably won’t get on some programmes. It’s not an exact science, and there are always fails, or people who don’t perform to their full potential for other reasons - family issues, lack of confidence or unable to perform under extreme pressure, so part may be a gut feeling by the selectors, but on the whole these people have seen an awful lot of athletes during long careers at the top, and to them a world class athlete will stand out a mile. But yes, it’s all about who will medal, because that brings in the funding. With cycling, it’s a reason why BC have concentrated on track - there are just more events, so the more events you’re successful in, the more money the sport will be awarded.

@Alcoh

The really really sad thing is that this is going to backlash against the whole trans community including those not interested in taking women’s prizes. How on earth can Lia and Emily not understand that? The utter narcissism this shows. It’s all about Lia and Emily and them needing this to affirm themselves. It’s sickening. Hopefully people are peaking at record rates especially if this male body starts beating our national treasures such as Laura Kenny. But it will be stealthy. The women need to refuse to race and leave Emily to race alone.

This is spot on.

Why would someone come out as trans, announce they are female and then take part in male cycling contests? Seems like wanting to have your cake and eat it to me.

I'm glad they have stood up as a body against this. The whole of the female cycling fraternity can't be called names like transphobic. Not as a whole group. Though this Emily racing against and beating Laura would have put the cat among the pigeons for sure. Really ruffled feathers and been a big wake up call.

@Clymene

Last month Bridges was in their men's university team. How handy to be able to pick and choose!

Have your cake and eat it why don't you Emily?

Boris Johnson recently mentioned that biology matters. Today on the radio a Labour (?) MP asked, “What is a woman?” In the end she mumbled something about biological women.

Perhaps, now this has been allowed - instead of the blanket phrase TWAW - it will also gradually be more possible to speak about and recognise the physical discrepancy between the biology of men and the biology of women and say that these biological differences absolutely trump the trans woman identity in various settings.

On Iain Dale’s radio programme last night on LBC, they had on a trans man, Oliver Smith, who is senior pathway advisor at GenderGP. His view was that there are always exceptional people in sport, and (direct quote here) ‘I often think it’s just a little bit of jealousy’ Jealousy?! WTAF?

I suppose that's why all the transmen athletes continue to compete with the women and not the men. Obviously they are not special enough.

His view was that there are always exceptional people in sport

That's a slightly unfortunate take given that what's noticeable about TW in women's sports is that they're not exceptional athletes at all. Exceptional sportsmen don't generally seem to feel the need, I wonder why.

Sitting on my hands. Rather fond of my radio. Don't want to throw it out the window

@Gosports

On Iain Dale’s radio programme last night on LBC, they had on a trans man, Oliver Smith, who is senior pathway advisor at GenderGP. His view was that there are always exceptional people in sport, and (direct quote here) ‘I often think it’s just a little bit of jealousy’ Jealousy?! WTAF?

No, a male person is not an exceptional kind of female.

And females are not jealous of males for having penises, they're really not, despite what Freud thought.

Quite, females are NOT just males minus some testosterone.

Oliver Smith is ‘senior pathway advisor’ at GenderGP. He is 24. How is anyone that age senior anything, within a medical profession? The world has gone mad.

His view was that there are always exceptional people in sport, and (direct quote here) ‘I often think it’s just a little bit of jealousy’ Jealousy?!

1. Yes a man competing in women's sports will be exceptional
2. Can we add "jealousy" to the "women should just train harder" line?

@Gosports

Quite, females are NOT just males minus some testosterone.

Oliver Smith is ‘senior pathway advisor’ at GenderGP. He is 24. How is anyone that age senior anything, within a medical profession? The world has gone mad.

Given the light currently being shed at the tribunal of Mike Webberley, married to Helen Webberley, of GenderGP infamy, I would be sceptical about the views of a 24-year-old 'senior pathway advisor' working there.

(For anyone not following it, I'd highly recommend heading over to the Mike Webberley thread on here, and/or reading the tribunal tweets themselves. It’s utterly horrifying and lays matters out in stark detail)

So if a male is allowed into women's sports, and does "exceptionally" well a la Lia Thomas, women who don't like it are "jealous"

Why would they be jealous? Of what? Of males having unfair greater size, strength and muscle power? It's almost as if, to stop such jealousy, it might be a good idea to put males in the male category. I guess then the women wouldn't be "jealous" as then they could win at their own sports and feel free to congratulate the male winners in the male categories, even if they have faster times.

Not about cycling but transwoman Blaire White talks a lot of sense in this video, talking about the unnecessary backlash on trans people because males who identify as women are insisting on being included in female only sport

there's literally one, yall are really good at making mountains out of molehills, there's o n e

And that is one too many.

How many women does a single mad displace?

Lia Thomas took places away from 5 women at one college event.

It is also very bad for trans people. As Blaire White points out in the video, how can trans people be respected in other areas when they appear to be demanding something so blatantly unfair in sport.

Brilliant from Blaire. So clear, intelligent, articulate and just common sense. A TW who recognises how I feel about the claim that a TW is a woman exactly like me, and who respects that there is an important difference, gets so much more respect from me in return.