Cyclist Emily Bridges started hormone therapy last year
Transgender cyclist Emily Bridges has been declared ‘ineligible’ to compete this weekend (2 and 3 April) in the British National Championships Women’s Omnium.
Bridges was initially allowed to apply, under British Cycling’s non-binary and transgender contestant participation policy.
But later this organization stated, in a statement, that it had been informed “by the UCI that (…) Emily is not eligible to participate in the event”.
The race will be held on Saturday in the Derby, in the presence of five-time Olympic champion Laura Kenny.
According to the British newspaper, The Guardian, Emily Bridges will have to wait for her UCI registration as a men’s sprinter to expire before she can compete in the women’s category. The athlete began hormone therapy last year.
British cycling regulations, updated in January 2022, require that you demonstrate low testosterone for 12 months prior to competition.
The initial decision to allow Bridges to compete this weekend has sparked quite a controversy. Other athletes threatened to boycott the race.
“It was unfair to ask Laura Kenny and other runners, who would have been up against Bridgers, to compete with a competitor with the advantages of a biological man,” former British Olympic swimmer Sharon Davis said on Thursday (31). The Times, claiming that “no drop in testosterone can mitigate it.”
