If it had the will or the courage, the IOC could solve all trans controversies in sport at a stroke
It was with dizzying speed that sports became captive to the blind zealotry of transgender ideology. Now, belatedly, they discover they can throw off the yoke of noisy, belligerent activism just as quickly. It is just 76 days since Austin Killips, a biological male and novice cyclist who only began transitioning in 2019, writing a blog about the process entitled “Oestro Junkie”, won the women’s Tour of the Gila in New Mexico. The injustice was so stark, so inexcusable, that even Michael Engleman, the race’s competition director, told The Telegraph: “This could kill the sport.”
His warning has finally been heeded, with the Union Cycliste Internationale deciding to restrict the female category solely to those born female. It is a relief, in these febrile times, to find a global governing body with the gumption to acknowledge what is staring it in the face: that there can be no scientific or ethical defence for mediocre men, carrying all the advantages of male puberty, to take prizes away from women. It took just one example – that of Killips stealing glory at the Gila from Marcela Prieto, the young woman in second place – to catalyse change.
But is change truly the right word here? For what we are witnessing, in essence, is a correction, a repudiation of that much-parroted maxim that “trans women are women” and all its pernicious implications for the integrity of female sport. Yes, the UCI deserve credit, but only in the sense that they have at last seen the lunacy in trying to appease a tiny minority to the detriment of half the population.
Marion Clignet, a French champion road racer, presented a survey to the UCI last year to show how 92 per cent of female cyclists believed there should be an outright ban on transgender riders. And the board ignored it, convinced that burnishing their corporate credentials on inclusion mattered more. So, go easy on those standing ovations.