Great statement from Kate Archibald

[ControversialOpening]

www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/apr/20/katie-archibald-claims-ioc-unfair-to-female-cyclists-and-trans-women

Hats off to Kate!
She's pitched her statement just right - very eloquent

Well done Katie. That must have taken a huge amount of courage. It's a fair and kind statement. And I cannot see how Emily (or Emily's angry mum) can continue to argue that Emily should continue to push to compete against women.

Emily's Olympic dreams are over. It happens to hundreds of athletes and I cannot imagine the crushing disappointment but Emily has shown they can have a successful cycling career in university and national cycling events.

Really good statement. I agree, perfectly pitched from the quoted bits.

I also agree with her that it was completely unnecessary for the sport to fail to get a fair policy until it became personal about one trans athlete. So avoidable.

Anyway. It's so good that the dam has broken and people are feeling able to speak.

I love Katie. Well done to her.

She is a fantastic athlete. Watching her race is completely joyous. She’s a legend.

Its absolutely right that so much of this should never have happened.

She’s also Scottish so hoping her words will have impact there.

Yes Emily Bridges is definitely also a victim here. 'She' is just a male trying to take advantage of systemic sexism. Be kind to 'her' everyone!

Good statement. Though if you didn't read the whole article you would think she was pro men who say they are women being in women's sports!

It's a superb statement.

And I think the comments she has made about Bridges are helpful and useful. It's very easy to make it personal with athletes such as Bridges, Thomas and Hubbard, but actually, Kate's statement is correct. Those athletes were invited to take part in the category. Yes, they could have refused, but it would take an extraordinary amount of, something.. integrity, determination? to refuse a spot that is being offered to them. If I found a legal way to get a place at the Olympics, would I decline to take it (unlikely in my case unless a new category of cake eating is brought in)?

And focusing on individual athletes does lead to shouts of 'transphobia' which does nothing to help fight our corner. It's the systems that are in place that are wrong, and Kate is correctly identifying that.

Thank you for link. This is an excellent article .

Very good.

On one level I do feel for athletes like Bridges and Thomas. They are (quite) young and have grown from adolescence to adulthood in a climate (and social bubble?) that insisted that they were indistinguishable from women, and in their sight, women were ‘called out’ (abused/doxxed/harassed/fired) for insisting otherwise. It’s possible that they genuinely can’t see how it isn’t prejudice to insist on fairness in female sport. It’s possible they can’t see how their inclusion isn’t fair. It’s possible they don’t see the condescension towards women that is on display when people express the sentiment that it’s ‘only one athlete’ or ‘only one race’ or ‘be kind is so important’, when if I tried to include someone in the men’s 100m Olympic final with an iota of unfair advantage (like someone with artificial enhancements to their body), the whole world would go nuts.

All these things are possible and Archibald is kind to give them the benefit of the doubt.

British Cycling cocked up by letting Emily think she could compete in the women. Would she still have started taking hormones if they hadn’t? Transwomen should not be racing in with the women, but This fiasco would have made her less competitive against the males.

I don't feel sorry for them.

I don't think Thomas has even taken hormones, just put on a swimsuit. Thomas was a mediocre male swimmer who got into Penn on the back of their elder brother's swimming performance. Girls on the same swim team have complained that they have been subjected to Thomas's exposed penis in the changing room.

Bridges was happily competing with men in February - and winning - so the lowered testosterone doesn't appear to have affected performance significantly. I have no issue with Bridges competing against men and as the attached shows, clearly neither does Bridges.

Her full statement is at the end of the BBC article: www.bbc.com/sport/cycling/61157886

It's really good - so heartening to see.

It's very easy to make it personal with athletes such as Bridges, Thomas and Hubbard, but actually, Kate's statement is correct. Those athletes were invited to take part in the category. Yes, they could have refused, but it would take an extraordinary amount of, something.. integrity, determination? to refuse a spot that is being offered to them.

I think just an average level of integrity would stop most males from attempting to compete in the female category.

I don’t think we should underestimate that it’s a form of brainwashing for some people. We say gender ideology has the features of cult thinking for a reason.

I sometimes look at Bridges’ mum’s statements on Twitter and think what it must be like growing up with that level of dogmatic certainty in a home, when you are very confused about your identity.

But still, as you grow up you have to take responsibility for your own actions and opinions.

And focusing on individual athletes does lead to shouts of 'transphobia' which does nothing to help fight our corner. It's the systems that are in place that are wrong, and Kate is correctly identifying that.
What l find frustrating is the focus on the trans athlete as an individual, with all the women competitors seen as one mass. What about their individual struggle and effort to get where they are?

‘What l find frustrating is the focus on the trans athlete as an individual, with all the women competitors seen as one mass.’

But there’s only one... Then there are two. Then there are fifty. Because ‘representation’.

It’s representation in the same way that fifty heavyweights in the flyweight division is representation.

I may have not written what i meant @tabbycatstripy I meant it in a frustration at the 'oh no look how much they've struggled to say they want to compete in the female category, that must have been so hard/brave/stunning why wouldn't we let them and laud them'
And completely disregarding all the effort and hard work of everyone else.

I think that’s just because they don’t regard it as cheating.