Austin Killips, the man who has won a growing number of women’s titles in professional cycling, has complained that men are “underrepresented” in woman’s sports and blasted the “nature of the discourse” on the topic of transgender athletes.
Killips spoke out on Sunday in a complimentary article published by the Knoxville News Sentinel in which he lamented the political climate he is forced to navigate.
In a story entirely friendly to Killips, the cyclist insists that the accusations made by detractors of trans athletes are not legitimate positions to take.
“It’s certainly concerning that the nature of the discourse, the amount of energy that has gone into building this narrative would lead you to believe that there’s this massive number of trans athletes participating in sports and winning all the time, when the reality is that we’re statistically underrepresented,” Killips said. “By the number, some of us do well, a lot of us do just fine, are just normal competitors.”
He added, “If the rules say trans people can play, then it doesn’t mean that we can’t win.”
Belgian Marion Norbert Riberolle, Dutch Denise Betsema and American Austin Killips pictured on the podium after the women’s elite race of the ‘Kasteelcross’ cyclocross cycling event, race 7/8 in the ‘Exact Cross’ competition, Saturday 21 January 2023 in Zonnebeke. (DAVID PINTENS/BELGA MAG/AFP via Getty Images)
Killips, of course, has become a focus of criticism after winning two recent titles in the women’s category. And in one race, he so overmatched his female competitors that he won the race in the female category with a whopping lead of five minutes.
Killips also insisted that transgenders in women’s sport is not new. “Historically, we’ve been around for quite a while and we have been doing thing,” he said.
The male-born racer claimed that with his cycling career he is “just trying to imbue the experiences and moments that bring you joy and holding on to those.”
But his appearance at the USA Cycling Pro Road championships in Knoxville last weekend also brought protesters.
The Independent Women’s Forum (IWF), Independent Women’s Network (IWN), and the Inga Thompson Foundation held an “Our Bodies, Our Sports: Keep Women’s Cycling Female” rally during the USA Cycling Pro Road National Championships to protest Union Cycliste International’s (UCI) and USA Cycling’s rules allowing male competitors in the women’s division.
The rally was held across from the legendary Pat Summitt Statue at the University of Tennessee, the group reported that the location was mean “to symbolize the importance of protecting Title IX and single-sex competition in order to preserve the integrity of women’s sports.”
The @UCI_cycling should hang their heads in same. An average man beats all the women. Those hard working ladies obviously didn’t want it hard enough. Such a poor message to be sending our future female cyclists. A proper shit show https://t.co/L8G8T16q2j
— The Brick Session (@thebricksession) May 1, 2023
The rally was planned and attended by 3x Olympic cyclist Inga Thompson and former NCAA swimming champion Riley Gaines. Also in attendance was Payton McNabb, a teen volleyball player seriously injured by a man claiming to be a female athlete, and several others, all of whom spoke at the protest.
“Women’s sports were created for women. Women fought for years to have sex separated sports. No amount of testosterone suppression mitigates the advantages of being born male. Sports exist on the premise of fairness. There is no fairness or equal opportunity in sports for women if men with gender dysphoria are allowed to compete against women,” Inga Thompson said.
Riley Gaines added, “There’s no equity, fairness, sportsmanship, or opportunity for women to succeed at an elite level without sex-based categories. Allowing male athletes like Austin Killips to compete in the women’s category is an infringement on female cyclists.”
Thompson and Gaines are also supporting a petition called the “Keep Women’s Cycling Female” petition, which can be seen at the Independent Women’s Network website.
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