The governing body for time trialling in England, Scotland and Wales, Cycling Time Trials (CTT), announced that transgender women will no longer be allowed to compete in the female category. This follows the recent policy update by British Cycling concerning transgender cyclists competing in the women’s category. According to the update, only individuals who were assigned female at birth will be eligible to compete. This measure followed a nine-month review conducted by the federation.
Updated policy for time trials
CTT posted a statement and that the updated policy is a result of “extensive internal work and insight from other sports’ governing bodies.” The governing body has also created a new “open” category.
“TT’s purpose is to facilitate and run time trials–where each competitor rides alone ‘against the clock’ for a set distance or time. By its nature, time trialling is a ‘gender-affected sport’; which by definition means that the strength, stamina and physique of the average competitor of one gender is different from another.
Following extensive internal work and insight from other sports’ governing bodies, CTT has made this decision as it is certain that transgender women can retain the physical advantages gained by a male when going through male puberty, and this does not support a level and fair playing field for competition.
The team emphasizes that all transgender persons and non-binary persons are very welcome to continue taking part in competitive time trialling, and following in the footsteps of British Cycling have renamed the male category to ‘open’. Non-binary persons (persons who affirm that they are neither male nor female) will also be invited to compete in this category.)”
Three requirements
The new policy goes on to state that there will be three requirements. “Those competing in the female category are able to satisfy all the following requirements:1) Their sex assigned at birth was female, and 2) They must not have undergone any part of male puberty, and 3) Their testosterone serum level must be below 2.5 nmol/L if tested.
The Board of CTT will create a new body, a Gender Tribunal, to decide gender eligibility issues and provide sensitive guidance to those affected by this policy.”
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