In the midst of heated discussions regarding transgender athletes in female events, a trans cyclist achieved first place at a female race held in New York City.
Tiffany Thomas, the 46-year-old transgender cyclist, astounded the Randall’s Island Crit competitors as she finished first to claim victory! Her tremendous athleticism and dedication propelled her above all of the other racers.
Despite only beginning her cycling career in 2018, Tiffany rapidly saw success and has since been a powerhouse in various competitions. She recently obtained a spot on the highly-esteemed LA Sweat team, where even the most experienced cyclist is just 32 years old!
Despite her unparalleled successes, some athletes and critics remain unconvinced of Thomas’ merits due to their suspicions that she holds an advantage over other women’s competitors.
After celebrating her most recent accomplishment, Thomas said on Instagram that it ‘was a great day to play bikes with friends’.
‘Last race with our 2022 LA Sweat team kit. I’m not going to lie, sometimes it made me feel like a superhero when I wore it,’ she added.
Thomas,’a scientist by day, athlete by night’ as described in her LA Sweat team profile, is the lab director at her place of work according to her Instagram.
‘You will never see anyone with a bigger smile than when she sees a beautiful electron microscopy picture of a red cell,’ the biography adds.
‘She has never met a barbell, a bike, or a dog that she doesn’t like. She is so incredibly excited to race and represent the LA Sweat team this year!’
Despite posting her success on social media, Thomas has been harshly criticized by some. A female cyclist even went so far as to suggest Thomas was ‘cheating’.
‘Tiffany’s teammates are all between the ages of 24 and 32. Amazing that Tiffany can keep up with them at the age of 46 after only starting cycling at age 40!’ they said.
‘Tiffany Thomas has been on countless podiums, going from a total beginner to the elite level in just 5 years.’
‘I feel so bad for woman athletes in America that have trained their entire lives,’ said another person.
‘We are destroying woman’s rights in America. They might as well just make every sport in this country co-ed. This is all so unfair. Everyone should live the way they want but there are sacrifices.’
The recent surge of transgender cyclists in women’s cycling caused former champion Hannah Arensman to sadly forego the sport after she was surpassed on a podium spot by a trans cyclist.
‘At my last race at the recent UCI Cyclocross National Championships in the elite women’s category, I came in fourth, flanked on either side by male riders awarded third and fifth,’ she said in her retirement announcement.
‘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.’
Numerous states have taken action to outlaw transgender women from taking part in female sports, using research that suggests they still possess an advantage over other participants even after transitioning.
In March 2022, Lia Thomas delivered a powerful and inspiring message when she became an NCAA champion as a trans swimmer. This bold move quickly ignited discussions around female cycling competition, and shortly afterward, at the age of 40, Thomas began her rise to the top in this sport.
During a 2021 interview, Thomas recollected how she had not been innate when she initially took part in the contest; even though her first event yielded fifth place.
After striking up a friendship with another racer, the 46-year-old was persuaded to take part in the ‘women’s development race’.
‘So I signed up for it, and it was amazing,’ she said. ‘But I sucked at it’.
After achieving a near-podium finish as a novice, Thomas reflected on the experience and realized: ‘I really want to do this’.
Thomas addressed the opposition she faced when joining women’s sports, noting it has been “painful” to endure.
Following her second-place finish at the Doylestown Health Women’s pro in Pennsylvania in 2021, with only former Olympian Paola Munoz outranking her, Thomas revealed that one of the women who stood alongside her on the podium had edited herself into a victory photo – blurring Thomas from it entirely.
‘The reason why this erasure was so hurtful to me is that I have had people tell me that I don’t belong,’ she continued. ‘Fortunately, we have a community that has said that this is not ok’.
Despite proponents of including trans athletes in female sports arguing that equity can still be attained, opponents contend that their physical superiority over biological females cannot be reversed.
The debate surrounding trans athletes has escalated after several trans individuals have surpassed women’s records in recent years, including Cece Telfer who was the first to do so when she won an NCAA title with a 400m hurdles victory at the Division II National Championships of 2019.
The following year, history was made when Laurel Hubbard from New Zealand became the first openly transgender woman to participate in the Olympic games. She courageously embraced her true self and competed with grace and determination at weightlifting during Tokyo’s Olympics.
After a few minor accomplishments in male categories, Lia Thomas became the leading female swimmer at the NCAA championships in March 2022 and quickly gained national recognition.
In an exclusive talk with DailyMail.com this past month, Tommy Lundberg – a prominent investigator and lecturer at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden specializing in physiology – stated: ‘The most important thing is whether or not you have benefited from male development and male puberty and if you’ve done that, you’re going to have advantages you cannot undo later.’
Nancy Hogshead, a three-time gold medalist and one silver medalist from the 1984 Olympics, echoed this sentiment when she spoke to DailyMail.com: ‘Trans women have an undeniable physical advantage.
‘Their bodies do what male bodies do when they go through puberty and is the reason why we segregate sports ubiquitously around the world.
‘Unless we’re talking about just playing, just recreational sports. All competitive sports is sex-segregated.’
Undeniably, esteemed trans role model Caitlyn Jenner – who earned gold in the male decathlon at the 1976 Olympics and then transformed into one of the most renowned trans women on earth – publicly stated that Thomas’s success is ‘anathema to what sports represents and the spirit of competition’.
