In a victory for female athletes, champion male cyclist Zach Bridges, who now prefers to be called Emily, won’t be able to race against real women.
Female riders threatened to pull out of an event en masse unless male cyclist Emily Bridges was barred from racing against them, it is now being reported https://t.co/O3XB484dQu
— ripx4nutmeg (@ripx4nutmeg) March 31, 2022
Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), the world governing body for international competitive cycling, made the call that Bridges won’t be allowed to compete against real women. The decision was made after female cyclists threatened to boycott the race en masse.
“It’s not transphobic to want fair sport—it’s anti-female to not,” said Sharron Davies, a former Olympic swimmer for England
Davies believes the threat of a boycott helped UCI make its decision.
“It would not have been fair to ask Laura Kenny and the other women cyclists that Bridges would have come up against to have to race a rival with the advantages of a biological man,” she continued. “No amount of testosterone reduction can mitigate that, but we’re being told to turn a blind eye to science and biology, to keep quiet and suck it up.”
FACT-O-RAMA! Zach/Emily Bridges has been taking female hormone therapy since 2021 but competed against men just a few weeks ago.
The decision is a victory for women athletes worldwide, but is it permanent?
British Cycling, the governing body for English cycling competitions, declared Bridges would be able to compete against real women, but UCI noted that Bridges was registered as a man and thus has to sit this one out. Bridges can re-register as a woman when his previous registration expires, meaning, this victory for real women may be temporary.
Davies, who may very well be the much-needed voice of reason regarding trans men competing against real women, had more to say on the topic. “At the moment we spend millions trying to spot people having the tiniest advantage by taking drugs so that they’re cheating,” she told GB News, “but yet women are supposed to move over so that males are able to come into their sports and just give up their trophies, their wins, their places their scholarships. It just seems so incredibly unfair.”
Source: PJ Media
