Cambridge bans trans rowers from women’s boat race

[lcakethereforeIam]

I suspect the headline is inaccurate, probably for brevity. A woman who claims some flavour of trans-identity would be able to row as long as she wasn't doping

https://archive.ph/xYGkG

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/11/08/cambridge-bans-trans-rowers-from-womens-boat-race/

As you can imagine as soon as this sank in with the local tras it didn't go down well.

Nicholas Budenberg, the men’s captain of Darwin College boat club, who voted against alignment, told the student newspaper that the changes were “morally unacceptable”.

What a misogynistic moron.

Oh look. An additional 'open' race created.

But they don't want that. It's letting men own and use the women's team or nothing.

I hope they enjoy the nothing then.

The open division isn’t ‘new’, it’s what used to be called the men’s division. This is the very sensible naming approach that British Rowing established a couple of years ago.

I wish the Transigraph would stop making inaccurate headlines. Nobody’s banned from competing (as nauseam).

New in terms of being changed from the men's division then.

Well, well done Cambridge, not always the thought leading institution we’d hope, but not all bad

Simply changing the men's category to Open and keeping a separate women's category is the ideal solution, as long as trans-identifying women aren't allowed to cheat with excessive testosterone. Everyone can take part; men can't compete against unwilling women.

Of course it will enrage men who want to cheat, and other transactivists who don't want women to have anything of our own. But competitive sport really becomes meaningless when blatant cheating is allowed, as it has been with men taking women's prizes.

There's a longer article in the Varsity

College rowing captains narrowly vote to exclude trans women | Varsity https://share.google/4aLxNVKIoX9WAQHB5

I note this quote

One anonymous rower told Varsity: “Inclusion is the most important part of college-level rowing – the very nature of college-level rowing is to foster an inclusive space”.

I've never held an oar in my life, don't live anywhere near Cambridge, am not sure which pointy bit is the front and get the giggles whenever anyone says 'cox', I assume I'm guaranteed a place in one of the teams.

I'd like to say Nicholas Budenburg can butt out, the women's rowing has fuck all to do with him. However, I realise my mistake. Transwomen are his brothers, I'm sure after a moments thought, as Captain, he can be as inclusive as he likes. He can ensure they're welcome in the teams with the other men.

Same approach taken in cycling and triathlon. An open race and a women’s race.

“Facing potential legal action, CUCBC informed captains college-level rowing would be at threat of ceasing entirely if they voted against the proposal to align with British Rowing guidelines on trans eligibility”

If the men in frocks can’t have it then nobody can have it 🙄

Oh God forbid that women be allowed to be competitive or to take sport seriously on its own terms. College Bumps racing is hardly the most important sporting event on the planet but neither is my local pub’s darts league and I’m allowed to take that seriously on its own terms. People train 5 or 6 times a week for these events and it’s a genuinely mass participation sport in that setting. That IS inclusion - getting into a boat that you’re eligible for.

Theres a history of rules of inclusion being bent to maximise participation- like people from colleges where there aren’t enough men migrating to another college boat so they can row. Ironically, that was entirely sex-based, not just jumping in the women’s boat. Spot the difference.

They're saying quite the opposite, in fact. CUCBC were saying that if the captains vote DIDN'T agree to follow British rowing guidelines (which is having an open and women's category, the latter defined by biological sex) they wouldn't be able to support college level competitions. CUCBC wanted them to vote to exclude men from women's boats.

@lcakethereforeIam you are clearly exaggerrating to make a point, but as someone who did it years ago, college rowing is pretty inclusive. You do obviously have to be a student at that college (and now the appropriate sex for your crew) but it didn't require any previous experience, was open to all shapes and sizes and has one of the highest participation rates of any sport in the university. Hundreds, if not thousands of students start rowing for the first time in any given year, and if you're willing to turn up to practice, pretty much everyone has a chance to get into a boat that will do some races. On the women's side particularly, there were significant numbers of women who progressed from complete novices to rowing in the Boat Race during the course of their degree (less common on the men's side due to them bringing in Olympic rowers as ringers, and the few undergrads who made it to the Blue Boat were usually schoolboy rowers at the very least). And yes, I'd have been pretty pissed off if we'd lost a race because someone else had men in their boat.

I'm genuinely pleased to read that. I hope Mr Budenburg lives up to his ideals and encourages TiM/Fs to join in the open teams. He can build on these inclusive foundations. Perhaps he can work to get some gender neutral facilities established for men who don't want to share with the other men and who shouldn't be in the women's. And vice versa for women.

Worth clarifying, this is about the CUCBC which is the organisation which runs rowing competitions between around 30 colleges (fairbairns cup, bumps races etc) and sets rules for student use of the river. Its nothing to do with the uni teams and the races against Oxford.

CUCBC officers are generally very sensible, in post for a long while, not undergrads. The captains of all college clubs (undergrads, in post for 1 year) get a vote on issues affecting the clubs. Sounds like CUCBC proposed a rule for racing that would keep them in line with the law and encouraged captains to vote for it, knowing that if they didn't they could get in big legal trouble and would rather cancel races than risk it. Must say I'm very surprised the vote was so close (27/23) assuming captains knew that bumps may be cancelled if it didn't pass.

@SockQueen is right, college rowing is genuinely inclusive of anyone physically able and willing to have a go. Its amazing how successful it is at attracting 'non sporty' people, while also being inclusive of people who want to train hard and win. The only equivalent I've come across that does it so well is parkrun.

I wouldn't be too quick to praise Cambridge rowing though. I'm shocked to find out from the end of the article that the Cambridge women's reserve crew (blondie) for the boat race vs Oxford in 2015 included a young man. I assume he must have also rowed for his college women's crew.

I've spent a lot of time rowing, coxing and coaching. I've rowed in a boat race. The physical differences between men and women are obvious to everyone at that level. Those athletes spend a lot of time changing in communal facilities. Every single person in the CUW organisation and in the boat races org that knew about this and allowed it failed in their duty. As a relatively engaged alumna I cant believe I didn't know about this. I'm livid.

@GCburneraccount I found that out a few years ago and it shocked and hurt me too. There are crew videos online and the rest of the crew shielded them from the camera. Of course they did, women can be very protective of in-group members to their own detriment. I feel angry they were put in that position. All the more because I was once 16th in the squad and the last one picked, one male person selected would have knocked me out. I wonder who that woman was in 2015.

I cant fathom it @PermanentTemporary. The trialling process is so competitive. Rivalry is intense. You are measured against each other objectively and incessantly. How could one person who very obviously doesn't meet eligibility criteria be tolerated in that environment?

Erg scores must have made no sense. Women's blue boat you'd expect 7-7.20, blondie 7.15-7.30. Mens college 1st boat roughly 6.40-7. If pulling 7.30 he'd be a college 2nd boat standard rower in the uni squad. Or was he more like a mens lightweight pulling 6.40 but sitting in blondie with a close to world record time? Either way everybody would have known!

Surely the entirety of the squad, coaching and support team weren't all happy with it? Surely similar issues had come up at college level and been challenged before? Surely it would have inspired lots of average male college rowers to trial as a joke?
I know there has been some mad stuff happen in recent years but I simply cannot get my head around it happening in this specific environment.

Do you know if CUW ever apologised to Oxford for cheating, or to the women that year? I feel shame by association.

I didn't know about this until you two raised it here. I'm shocked that it actually happened and can't imagine the feelings of whoever lost out on a place to him.

I was only ever a very average college rower (got blades with the 2nd VIII, could have got into the 1st but didn't want the additional training commitment) but had friends who trialled and rowed for CUW and saw how hard they had to work.

I used to umpire Bumps for several years when I was a clinical medical student (so away on placement a lot of the time and not able to train regularly with a crew, but still wanted to be involved in the scene). For those not in the know, this involves cycling along the towpath, keeping pace with the racing boats and making sure they're following the rules. There are several races in a day so you go back over the same course multiple times and you get a much better feel of how fast crews are moving compared with being a static spectator. The difference between the men's and women's divisions is huge.

Exactly @SockQueen. Its like coxing a decent women's and mens VIII. You feel the difference in power so obviously. Anyone who knows the sport as well as those involved in the uni clubs would know it.

A friend who was a decent rower (goldie) now moves in very progressive circles. Last time we met we ended up chatting about gender stuff. He started off with 'be kind', but understood the issue immediately when I said it was like if he decided to identify into the lightweight or women's category. He saw the absurdity right away, and felt shame at even thinking of it. Possibly the easiest conversation on the issue I've ever had!

I guess, for the rowers, I have to remember how young we/they are. 20, 21, and generally quite sheltered. What gets presented to you, you may accept at that age, even without the strong social messaging around ‘inclusion’ and what feminism is. There are male coxes, male coaches, the squad doesn’t necessarily feel as single sex as all that. Being women in a power sport, none of us were especially gender conforming. I was right at the bottom of the squad, my focus was always making it through another week. It took a long time to even talk to my crewmates, and I’m not someone who thinks you can always tell. It’s unimaginable to me that even if I’d understood, that I would have said anything.

I was wondering far more about how the coaches came to oversee that. The coaches of my era, RS and RN, seemed incredibly unlikely candidates for this sort of thing, though I have to remember that coaches in all sorts of sport are employed to win, and a remarkable number of coaches have been driving forces in bringing male competitors into women’s sport.

But it made more sense when I remembered how long ago my era was 😂 the coaches of my time were long gone by 2015. And it was the changeover year to racing on the Tideway; I’ve no doubt they were focused on brute power and stamina. Perhaps my view of women’s rowing, that you have to consider the crew as a whole, isn’t right, I’m certainly not much of a coach. Blondie lost, though. And I never thought I would feel even slightly glad about that.

Have a look at Camfess and Rowbridge Reborn on FB over the last few weeks.
Depressing what is being said, and even more depressing that female rowers have been intimidated into staying silent and going along with this rubbish. We know that, when surveyed anonymously, the vast majority of female rowers across the UK want single sex women’s crews. Yet Cambridge today has become like 17th century Salem - anyone suspected of not signing up to all this bollocks is punished and ostracised. Not just in rowing but the new Society for Women too. Appalling.

Technically speaking, CUCBC includes the university boat clubs as well as the college boat clubs and CCAT.
Also, it doesn’t run all the intra-college events - just bumps and Uni IVs. JBC runs Fairbairns, EBC runs Emma Sprints etc.

TRAs recently tried to sabotage the Uni IVs in protest against the CUCBC vote - will be interesting to see if they try the same trick for Fairbairns. I would hope they don’t because tired novice eights are a lot less manoeuvrable than experienced fours and someone could get really hurt.

Thanks for the clarification @Neverforgetwhothisisfor - its been a while so my knowledge of all this niche nonsense is not as it was!

The pic of the uni IV's protest looked like 3 students having a jaunt in an inflatable dingy - if thats the level of protest it looks like organisers will easily be able to deal with it.

The forum sounds a bit mad, but I remember the early days of rowing forums and they always attracted the more geeky types who could get fixated on certain things (hmm, sounds familiar 😆). My sense is that this trend is passing and in a few years this will be replaced with something else and if CUCBC hold fast this will blow over. I'm far removed from this though, no idea if thats overoptimistic.

One anonymous rower told Varsity: “Inclusion is the most important part of college-level rowing – the very nature of college-level rowing is to foster an inclusive space”.

And there was me thinking the most important part of college-level rowing was to win races against other college-lever rowers.... and that that might be why being in the 8 was not decided via lottery?

@PermanentTemporary Yes, the students in the squad are in a culture that encourages complete compliance to the squad culture and rules, under fear of getting binned. You cannot expect them to do anything other than follow the lead of the coaches and submit to what they are told to do.
While I don't think the young man should have put himself in that position, he will have been encouraged to trial by others and allowed to think that he had the right to be there.
None of those young adults should find themselves under media scrutiny for things they were led to do by others who should have known better.

It would be primarily the CUW/CUBC coaching and support team who allowed him to trial and selected him.

Also, assuming he probably rowed for his college women's crew beforehand, any fellows/officers at the college who allowed and encouraged this, or encouraged him to trial, or celebrated his selection for the uni squad.

Also The Boat Race company (I think it had switched to them rather than the henley races org this year). Did their rules at the time allow self ID for crews? Or if not did they know and decide not to do anything about it? I've seen it said that for this year they didn't print the crews schools in the programme as the young man attended a boys school. If thats true then someone knew and wanted to not bring attention to it.

There was a lot going on this year. 2015 was the first year the women's race was internationally televised for the first time bringing an unprecedented level of coverage for the women's squad and race. The squads had had to get used to a change from a 2km race at Henley to a 4.2 mile race on the tideway. Did the focus on this big first (and equality with the mens race) make an embarrassing secret easier to hide? Did it drive the decision to stick him in Blondie, who raced the day before and had no TV coverage? I cant imagine it wasn't the subject of considerable concern within the Cambridge coaching team.

Like you, my mind boggles as to how it could have happened based on my (also very outdated) experience of the coaching set up. Probably the most likely explanation is cock up rather than conspiracy in a busy year, with focus on the big TV race, and in the end everyone being quite glad blondie lost in the hope the whole sorry issue can be forgotten.

Yeah, huge no-brainer. Men are just bigger and stronger. As a tiny compromise I might just about accept TW in the women's lightweight race if they could get in under the 59kg limit.