Trans-identifying males will not be eligible to compete in female competitions for British Cycling events, according to a new policy. The sports association says that they will create a new open category for anyone who does not want to compete with their biological gender.
Trans activists have already spoken out about a third sports category because they do not want to acknowledge that they are not the biological gender that they seek to compete against. They have falsely claimed that if they suppress their testosterone, they have evened the playing field.
Not even close. According to a recent study that analyzed 19 peer-reviewed research reports about hormonal suppression in athletes, that simply does not work. “To summarize all of this briefly, men typically have 40-45% more lean body mass than women, and testosterone suppression reduces lean body mass by ~4-5%. Men typically have 30-60% higher muscle strength than women, and testosterone suppression reduces muscle strength by 0-9%.”
The study says that “by mid-puberty, males outperform comparably aged, gifted, and trained females by 10-60%, depending on the sport, with the smallest differences in running and swimming and the largest differences in weightlifting and baseball pitching.”
What about pre-pubescent children? Should they be able to compete across sex boundaries? No. The researchers point out that “evaluations of fitness testing in children as young as three years old show that boys perform better than girls of the same age on tests of throwing, muscular strength, muscular endurance, and aerobic fitness.”
