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- Tessa Johnson, 25, received the ladies’s Single Pace and girls’s Cat Half races
- Johnson and fellow trans bike owner Evelyn Williamson have dominated the Chicago racing scene
A transgender bike owner once more took first place in two girls’s classes at a Chicago Cross Cup race final week – bringing her yearly complete to 10 gold medals throughout the Windy Metropolis racing scene.
Tessa Johnson, 25, triumphed within the girls’ Single Pace and girls’s Cat Half races on October 29 on the Campton Cross competitors.
Simply earlier than Halloween, pictures posted to social media present Johnson opted to compete carrying a Barbie-inspired costume.
Johnson’s win is the newest for the trans competitor, who has sparked outrage by dominating feminine occasions within the space.
‘Girls want to begin boycotting these occasions. He’s a man with all of the bodily advantages. USA Biking must undertake the UCI requirements and pressure these fake feminine riders to compete with the boys,’ wrote one consumer named Mike on Twitter.
Johnson and fellow transgender bike owner Evelyn Williamson, 30, have been sweeping the Chicago racing scene.
On the Jackson Park Chicago Cross Cup race on October 7, Johnson received first place within the Girls’s SingleSpeed and Cat Half and Williamson positioned second within the SingleSpeed.
The transgender duo won the Illinois state women’s championship on August 31 on the Ed Rudolph Velodrome.
In addition they received the Racing-Athletic Relay Cross in Chicago on August 27 – competing below the staff identify ‘TS-ESTRODOLLS’ in reference to the feminine hormone estrogen.
Johnson’s October 29 wins sparked debate over the involvement of transgender athletes within the sport.
Held at Anderson Park within the Campton Township of Illinois, there have been over a dozen completely different classes for males, girls and juniors to race in.
Whereas some had been angered with Johnson’s win, others celebrated it. ‘Congrats to Tessa,’ one consumer wrote.
Williamson has made headlines for her romantic life after rumors started circulating that she was in a ‘throuple’ with fellow transgender bike owner Austin Killips and a 3rd unidentified particular person.
Killips sparked widespread outrage after appearing to shove feminine CycloCross champion Hannah Arensman in a contest in December 2022 – who went on to give up the game solely after feeling transgender athletes had been ruining the game.
After Killips pushed her, Arensman stated: ‘I absolutely count on that in biking, as a full-body contact sport, you’re going to get hit in some unspecified time in the future.
‘However when you will have somebody born a person run into you, over 6ft tall, it’s fairly completely different. I attempted to maintain racing, to not let it get into my head in any respect. That one occasion caught on video felt pointless, although.’
Arensman left the sport entirely this 12 months after shedding a podium place to the trans rider.
‘A man, even when mediocre within the males’s area, is greater than able to breaking data and making podiums in girls’s races,’ she added.
‘This isn’t truthful sport, and the governing our bodies, who ought to have made the principles initially, want to understand it. The very individuals who ought to be defending our sport aren’t doing so.’
Union Cycliste Internationale, biking’s world governing physique, banned transgender women from competing within the feminine class at worldwide occasions after Killips received the Tour of the Gila in Could.
On their web site, the Chicago CrossCup stated they welcome transgender athletes and that they observe USA Biking’s Transgender Athlete Participation insurance policies, which permits members in non-elite races to self-select their gender.
The race organizers stated: ‘The CCC has at all times been at first about fostering a optimistic & supportive neighborhood constructed round aggressive CycloCross racing, and meaning welcoming and difficult everybody who desires to contribute to the sequence and make it higher.’
They famous: ‘Discrimination or harassment of any type on the premise of race, shade, faith, age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identification, nationwide origin, sportsball staff affiliation, or every other silly thought somebody comes up with to belittle others is not going to be tolerated.’
USA Biking not too long ago introduced an updated transgender athlete policy that goes into efficient on January 1, 2024.
The coverage requires transgender bike owner collaborating in USA Biking occasions to compete in classes, both Group A or Group B, relying on their self-discipline and skill.
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