A biological male cruised to victory in the women's division of a North Carolina cycling event on Saturday, defeating the competition by five minutes.
Austin Killips, 27, won $5,000 after easily coming in first in the 131-mile Belgian Waffle Ride in Hendersonville, Cycling News reported.
The dominant victory by Killips prompted second-place finisher Paige Onweller to declare that her power was “not comparable” to that of the biological male. Onweller suggested a separate category for trans athletes.
“A transgender athlete won the women’s overall, which has caused some controversy. For those following women’s road cycling, you are aware of the UCI rule that this is currently allowed,” Onweller wrote on social media.
According to the guidelines of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), cycling’s world governing body, trans-identifying women are allowed to compete in women's competitions if their testosterone levels have been below 2.5 nanomoles per litre for at least 24 months. The average testosterone level for women is between 0.5 and 2.4 nanomoles per litre.
"It was just a grueling effort. I’m just really proud to lay it out there and get the result," Killips said after the race. "After BC, I kind of get how things work now. Like, you really want to be up front going into those technical single-track sections and I kind of asserted myself there and was able to get a gap early."
According to the latest Gallup polling, most adults want biological males to stay out of women’s sports.
Gallup reported Monday that 69% of respondents to a recent survey say trans athletes should be allowed to compete on sports teams only corresponding to their sex at birth. That’s up from 62% in 2021, the last time the polling company posed the question.
The share of adults who endorse transgender athletes being able to play on teams that match their current gender identity dropped from 34% in 2021 to 26% this year, the company found. The remaining 5% of respondents had no opinion.
Meanwhile, Saturday's race in North Carolina was not the first time Killips has placed first in a women’s event.
In May, Reduxx reported that Killips had placed first in the Tour of the Gila, an internationally known top-tier cycling competition. Notably, the 2022 Tour was the first in the competition’s history where the prize money for both the male and female categories was equal. But following Killips’ win, two biological males walked away with the prize pots.
Killips’ emergence on the cyclocross circuit was part of the reason 35-time winner Hannah Arensman retired from the sport recently.
Killips had previously been accused of attempting to push Arensman off the racing course at the UCI Cyclocross National Championships in December of 2022.
One Twitter user shared a video of the incident which the user says shows Killips trying to “put Arensman into the tape.” The user said it was one of at least three such attempts to push Arensmanr off course, but the only one recorded on video, and had said Killips should have been disqualified for that move alone.
Elite Women Unofficial Results: 🥇Clara Honsinger 🥈Raylyn Nuss 🥉Austin Killips#CXNats
— USA Cycling (@usacycling) December 11, 2022
What a joke. https://t.co/VBZzvjNL62
— Martina Navratilova (@Martina) June 11, 2023
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