Transwoman wins women's US cycling race & gets $35k prize

[MrsJamin]

Austin Killips won the Tour of the Gila women's race www.cyclingnews.com/races/tour-of-the-gila-2023/stage-5-women/results/
Just outrageous. Any tweet by the organisers mentioning Killips has restricted comments (but of course many quote tweets)
It's getting more and more ridiculous:

• the rider retained their original male first name, Austin.
• they rode for the Amy D Foundation, set up to encourage and support young women through cycling, inspiring the celebration of healthy challenge and empowering the confident pursuit of lofty dreams.
• this is the first year the women's prize money is the same as the men's.

You couldn't make it up. When will the most sports-loving country in the world protect and give a shit about women in sport?

'American three-time Olympian Inga Thompson said the UCI - cycling's global governing body - was "killing off women's cycling".'

'Congratulations to her, very happy for her'

I fully support Austin going for the Olympics and Tour de France.

Austin is a powerhouse who can do great things for feminism.

'Canada's Olympic silver medallist Alison Sydor also criticised Killips' participation, saying it was "no different functionally than doping".'

@hotdiggetydog Yes, congratulations for eliminating the whole point of sex based sports.

I would say it is worse because the dose of testosterone that men get in in puberty isn’t reversible by later testosterone suppression.

Looking at Austin's peachey pocket, I'm taken by SpookyFBI's comment that "women" is a term past it's Sell By Date, because it's impossible to encompass every woman's experience.

I'm sure Austin proudly displaying is the last thing anyone sane could ever have considered could belong in even the broadest, loosest definition of "women".

Yes, I think what he will do for feminism will be analogous to what Harvey Weinstein did for the reputation of the film industry.

And what Isla Bryant did for the imprisoned would-be female rapist community...!

This is a cracking article...

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cycling/2023/05/02/british-cyclists-scared-trans-athletes-austin-killips/

The telling thing IMO about the latest podium photo is the relative thickness of the quadricep muscles of the three medallists, it's absolute night and day on three contestants of seemingly broadly similar height and whatnot. the obvious advantage in power terms is glaring.

Post edited by MNHQ

Since when has MN had “sensitive content” warnings?! Is it because it contains a male who’s cheating, or is it the descriptive term “dick bulge” that got it a warning?

Could this be another 'moment '?
We just need more of these.

I would also like it explained to me how a testosterone policy is going to be implemented and policed.

The UCI has set the level at 2.5nmol/l. So who is going to check? How often does a male have to have blood tests to prove they are keeping it below that level? What’s to stop a male training with normal testosterone levels and then dropping them just before a scheduled blood test? Bridges said it happened in a week. Will these athletes have to submit to WADA-regulated out of hours/random testing/6am doorbell rings?

The answer of course is no. It will be an honesty policy. What could go wrong with that?🤨

Congratulations to her, very happy for her

Congratulations to the ACTUAL winner. The WOMAN who was pushed into second place by a cheat.

The Emperor is wearing Lycra. The Emperor has a penis.

Great piece from Allison Pearson:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2023/05/02/austin-killips-trans-cyclist-womens-sport-lia-thomas/

Huge congratulations to the real winner Marcela Prieto, and to second and third place champions Cassie Nelson and Emily Ehrlich. Not just for their excellence at a competition they worked so hard for, but also for bravely doing their best while knowing that they were being usurped by a cheating male who was being enabled by hostile competition organisers.

Hear, hear.

I read a book on the downfall of Lance Armstrong recently; fascinating on many levels. I genuinely don't understand how anyone can take the sport seriously given the embedded attitude of "it's not cheating if everyone's doing it".

I really want to hear a female sports pundit on the BBC point out that women are not just men with a bit less testosterone. And lots of coverage of the special ladycock lycra bulges.

Here is a long conversation with Austin on how hard handling hormones can be. Sounds awful, tbh. Lots of lying about on a sofa, crying. This is not how you imagine a young healthy athlete would behave.

s

Roughly paraphrasing what he's saying - at first he took oestrogen to 'feminise' the body but latterly it was just to suppress Testosterone in order to be allowed to race women. It seems that the latter times were when the difficult side effects really made themselves clear.

I do hope that at some point in the not too distant future all these wrongs are righted and that the results tables are updated to show the true positions of the women and the biological males results are struck through.

If it was as simple as altering testosterone and oestrogen levels, why have we not seen any trans men break into men's sport and compete at a meaningful level? After all if they took suitable amounts of testosterone that would level the playing field. ..?

Good point.

And one of those inconvenient truths the TRAs ignore. (Along with all the others. Like Biology).

From what I can make out, director Julie sounds like it was a team effort with Austin deliberately chosen to be the person the team was supporting to win, and the other riders, Casey in particular, were chosen to support Austin in winning. ( in the way the riders in tour de France teams work to help one member of their team win). Which makes it a team cheat effort to help a male win, from a team set up to support women.

How can Julie live with herself? This is basically approved cheating. It’s her loophole, to get her team to win.

Another Telegraph article today by the chief sports writer Oliver Brown
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cycling/2023/05/02/trans-cyclists-have-olympics-in-sights-no-one-can-stop-them/

There is also "UCI under pressure as Davies warns women's sports at risk". Can't see that on the online version though. Plus there is a yet another one on "Controversial policy and how it stacks up to IOC framework", both by Tom Morgan the sports new correspondent.

I know a lot of mumsnetters don't like the DT because they perceive it as right wing, but you have to hand it to them. They are all guns blazing in favour of women's sports - even pre-dating the trans debacle.

Today's articles in the print edition devote the sports splash and and an inside double page to the issue.