On Sunday,FINA,swimming’s governing body,will hand down its own revised policy as its World Championships begins in Budapest. Along with cycling,it has been at the centre of a heated transgender debate as it deals with a high-profile case.
Cycling’s hand was forced by Emily Bridges,a racer stopped by the UCI from competing at the British omnium championships in Derby in April. At the time,the 21-year-old was eligible to ride but amid threats of a boycott from her competitors,the UCI blocked her participation and British Cycling put a line through their transgender protocols and went back to the drawing board.
Bridges had set junior records and was a winner of the men’s points race at university level. She had been scheduled to meet Laura Kenny,British cycling royalty,but now won’t be eligible to compete until at least 2023 after the UCI tightened what was already a narrow corridor.
The levers available to sports administrators are limited,but time and testosterone levels are the two key ones,even if there remains conjecture about whether the latter is too clumsy an instrument by which to adequately measure fairness.
With that in mind,the UCI increased its transition period from 12 months to two years before an athlete is able to compete,while lowering its testosterone threshold to 2.5 nanomoles (nmol) per litre instead of five. It insisted the move was based on recent science,not politics,and was to allow for transitioned athletes to make “adaptations in muscle mass and muscle strength/power”.
“Given the important role played by muscle strength and power in cycling performance,the UCI has decided to increase the transition period on low testosterone from 12 to 24 months,” the UCI said in a statement.