{"id":1419606,"date":"2022-04-05T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-05T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1419606"},"modified":"2022-04-05T10:00:04","modified_gmt":"2022-04-05T14:00:04","slug":"british-olympian-says-trans-athletes-must-compete-in-separate-category","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/british-olympian-says-trans-athletes-must-compete-in-separate-category\/","title":{"rendered":"British Olympian Says Trans Athletes Must Compete in Separate Category"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbritish-olympian-says-trans-athletes-must-compete-in-separate-category%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1419606&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"subheading\">British cyclist Nicole Cooke, who won the gold medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, has announced her opposition to transgender athletes in women\u2019s sports despite being a beloved fan of famed transgender cyclist Pippa York.<\/p>\n<p>In a lengthy op-ed for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-10680099\/Olympic-gold-medallist-NICOLE-COOKE-hero-trans-woman-bravely-speaks-out.html\"><em>Mail on Sunday<\/em><\/a>, Cooke recalled her appreciation for cyclist Rober Millar, who later transitioned to live as a woman named Pippa York.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">\u201cI am in awe of the strength of character that required. I also naturally sympathize with Pippa for having spent much of her life in the \u2018wrong\u2019 body. I cannot imagine how difficult that private struggle must have been,\u201d wrote Cooke.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Despite this admiration, Cooke ultimately believed that transgender athletes have their own category, fearing that their inclusion in women\u2019s sports would ultimately take away from the fairness that should be at the heart of every competition.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">I entered full-time cycling knowing that it was a man\u2019s world. I competed not for fame or money, but because I loved the sport with a passion. I wanted to take part and prove my worth to myself and those close to me.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">And that is exactly what the debate should distil down to. Why do it? Sport is about competition among equals. Boxing has weight limits because there would be no contest putting a nine-stone man up against the largest man on the planet. Women\u2019s sport is segregated because, in many disciplines, the larger average form of the male body confers an advantage.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Cooke ultimately likened the inclusion of biological males to a performance-enhancing drug (PED) due to their testosterone exposure throughout their development. She rejected the idea that hormone-blockers could somehow reverse this advantage and scolded bureaucratic organizations for failing to fully acknowledge this reality.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media.gettyimages.com\/photos\/cycling-gold-medalist-nicole-cooke-of-great-britain-show-her-medal-picture-id83295947?k=20&#038;m=83295947&#038;s=612x612&#038;w=0&#038;h=BKgXZxssGXSO19Ylq5z-4-1BOdQBilPJ0lvmE-ZOXL8=\" alt=\"Cycling Gold medalist Nicole Cooke of Great Britain show her medal during the Olympic and Paralympic Heros Parade on October 16, 2008 at the Mansion...\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\"><em>British Olympic Gold Medalist Nicole Cooke (Jamie McDonald-Pool\/Getty Images)<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">\u201cA person who has spent years consuming large quantities of testosterone or another PEDs will have a significant athletic advantage over one who has not,\u201d she argued. \u201cNo one should expect sports administrators to offer any moral guidance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">\u201cThe authorities are trying, and failing, to level the playing field through the use of one arbitrary physical metric, namely, testosterone levels,\u201d she added. \u201cBut human bodies are different and respond to medication differently. Some trans women athletes will suffer severe loss of condition achieving the required testosterone limit \u2013 others will not.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Cooke ultimately concluded that the only way forward for transgender athletes is to have their own category, which she agreed will attract little attention and dramatically shrink the pool of competitors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">\u201cThe field in the trans group will be smaller. If the motive to compete is genuine, competing fairly without a circus of discord is surely preferable. It would allow trans athletes to enjoy sport without distraction,\u201d she argued.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">\u201cHowever, if a trans athlete\u2019s true motive is the desire for fame and wealth \u2013 to access a subsequent career in I\u2019m a Celebrity, or similar \u2013 then a dark path will lie ahead,\u201d she added. \u201cFor them, it is not the competing that matters, only victory. Where, how and against whom is forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Cooke\u2019s recommendation for a separate category follows that of tennis icon\u00a0Martina Navratilova, who said there should be \u201can open category for everyone, and then for biological females.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">\u201cSo trans women can compete, but they\u2019ll compete against men. And trans men have a choice,\u201d she <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/sports\/2022\/03\/18\/martina-navratilova-lia-thomas-should-have-an-asterisk-next-to-his-name\/\">said<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>British cyclist Nicole Cooke, who won the gold medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, has announced her opposition to transgender athletes in women\u2019s sports despite being a beloved fan of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1419606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1419606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1419606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1419606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1419606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1419606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1419606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}