Cycling Time Trials issues new rules for trans competitors – that also affect cis women

Cycling Time Trials (CTT) – the national governing body for time trial events in England, Scotland, and Wales – has issued new, stringent rules for trans competitors. Now, anybody wishing to compete as any gender other than that assigned to them at birth must participate in the ‘open’ category. This was, until recently, known as the men’s category. However, the new rules will also prevent a good deal of cis women from competing in the women’s category.

The rules

CTT’s rebrand of the men’s category as ‘open’ follows a similar move from British Cycling in May. In its FAQ section, CTT stated that it issued the new rules:

Because we are convinced that after undergoing male puberty a rider will retain strength, stamina and physique which will give them a permanent advantage over someone who has not.

However, this given motivation is belied by the list of people affected by the rules. Trans men, trans women, and non-binary people are all required to compete in the open category. This makes no reference to male puberty, or taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT). It simply shifts all trans people into the open category.

As such, a non-binary athlete who was assigned female at birth, who has never taken testosterone, is now required to race against men. This is clearly not a requirement motivated by a belief in the advantages of male puberty. It is a requirement that trans people – any and all trans people – be denied the opportunity to compete against cis women.

Massive overreach

However, the new rules don’t stop with trans people, either. They state that a competitor in the women’s category must satisfy all of three requirements:

they must have been assigned the sex female at birth, they must never have gone through any part of male puberty and they must not have had a testosterone result in serum above 2.5 nmol/L level before competing even if they satisfy the other two requirements.

The last requirement is extraordinary. Testosterone (T) is often spoken of as the ‘male sex hormone’. However, it’s also produced naturally in the bodies of cis women. What’s more, it can vary for a number of reasons, including polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH). Around one in ten people with ovaries will develop PCOS at some point in their lives.

Research has shown that higher T levels in male athletes can produce better performance. However, there are comparatively few similar studies for women. That said, elite female athletes tend to have higher T levels than the general population – making CTT’s new rules more likely to affect them.

What’s more, the NHS considers the reference range for serum T in women to be anything below 2.7 nmol/L. So, CTT’s rules aren’t even in line with a ‘normal’ T range. Any attempt to define an ‘acceptable’ hormone profile for an athlete will be arbitrary. CTT’s ruling pushes past that into the pointlessly punitive.

‘Promoting inclusivity’

Chair, Andrea Parish, said of the new rules:

Here at CTT, we are committed to the promotion of inclusivity and a fair competition in sport. This decision underpins these such values and shows our collective support for women’s sport.

However, we have got to ask: is this what inclusivity looks like to you? These are rules on women’s sport which exclude any trans person, of any body type or hormone profile. They exclude women with common conditions that cause even mildly elevated T.

CTT’s new rules are part of the widespread reaction to trans participation in sport. They also continue the campaign of exclusion waged against intersex athletes like Caster Semenya. If you wanted a demonstration of how such policing of womanhood hurts far more than just the trans people it claims to target, look no further.

Featured image via Unsplash/Coen van de Broek