This week, a transgender athlete finished in first place in the women’s category in the Tour of the Gila bicycle race in New Mexico.
The athlete, Austin Killips, 27, is a biological male from Chicago, according to The Telegraph. Killips may now move on to a spot at the Tour de France and the Paris Olympics. Reportedly, Killips began hormone replacement therapy in 2019 and won a monetary prize for finishing the race.
"Austin is cycling's equivalent of Lia Thomas," Inga Thompson, a three-time US Olympian and five-time national road race champion, told The Telegraph.
Breaking News:
— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) May 1, 2023
MAN wins WOMENS Prize 🏆 pic.twitter.com/0Kp6J5GvRe
Townhall covered how last year, Will “Lia” Thomas, a biological male, competed on the women’s swim team at the University of Pennsylvania after identifying as “transgender.” Thomas walked away with an NCAA Division II Title competing against women. Previously, he was ranked 554th in the country in the equivalent male category. And, female athletes were told to share the locker room with Thomas.
"This really highlights the issues that are happening to women in cycling," Thompson said. "We have more than 50 transgender women in the sport. And what's going on in the background is that women are just quietly walking away. They think, 'Why bother, if it's not fair?'"
In March, Townhall reported how a male-bodied “transgender” athlete won a women’s event in New York City. The athlete, Tiffany Thomas, wrote on Instagram that “my two best friends are just as strong as me, I just happened to have a better day on that particular day. They will assuredly beat me at future races.”
And, Hannah Arensman, a 35-time winner on the national cyclocross circuit, said in an amicus brief to the United States Supreme Court that she retired from her sport when she finished in fourth place between two male-bodied “transgender” athletes at a competition (via the Supreme Court of the United States):
I have decided to end my cycling career. At my last race at the recent UCI Cyclocross National Championships in the elite women’s category in December 2022, I came in 4th place, flanked on either side by male riders awarded 3rd and 5th places. My sister and family sobbed as they watched a man finish in front of me, having witnessed several physical interactions with him throughout the race.
Additionally, it is difficult for me to think about the very real possibility I was overlooked for an international selection on the US team at Cyclocross Worlds in February 2023 because of a male competitor.
Moving forward, I feel for young girls learning to compete and who are growing up in a day when they no longer have a fair chance at being the new record 20 holders and champions in cycling because men want to compete in our division. I have felt deeply angered, disappointed, overlooked, and humiliated that the rule makers of women’s sports do not feel it is necessary to protect women’s sports to ensure fair competition for women anymore.
Several polls in recent months how shown that the majority of Americans support policies that would require transgender athletes to compete on teams that align with their biological sex rather than their "gender identity."
In June, Townhall reported how a poll conducted by The Washington Post and the University of Maryland found that the majority of Americans – 55 percent – believe in separating sports by biological sex. A separate poll published by Pew Research found that 58 percent of Americans favor requirements for transgender athletes to compete on sports teams that align with their biological sex.
And, another recent poll conducted by Summit Ministries and McLaughlin and Associates showed that the majority of Americans believe that transgender athletes are harming women’s sports. In the findings, 60 percent of respondents said that the Biden administration’s recent Title IX changes that allow “sex” to include “gender identity” and allow transgender athletes to compete against women has had a “harmful impact to women’s sports and biological female athletes.”