Hidden past, hopeful future for trans athletes

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In addition to undergoing surgery and waiting two years, the IOC policy requires an athlete to be legally recognized in his or her new gender.

Worley has been validated as a female athlete by the Europe-based Union Cycliste Internationale — the international body of cycling — and the Canadian Cycling Association, and has obtained her international cycling license.

Brett Stewart, director of domestic programs and development for the Canadian Cycling Association, said his organization looked at Worley’s medical and legal documentation and compared it to the International Olympics Committee’s requirements.

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“Based on that, it was our determination that she be granted status as a female athlete and we were able to give her domestic freedom to compete in cycling,” Stewart said. “With the process that is in place, she is considered to have female status.”

Because she was only recently recognized to compete as a woman, Worley is not a ranked cyclist yet. But in her own estimation, she has “a very good chance” of qualifying for the 2008 Games.

No actual advantage?
Perhaps the biggest hurdle facing the athletes is convincing critics that male-to-female transsexuals do not have a physical advantage over their competitors.

“It’s the age-old phenomenon of people fearing what they don’t know,” said Jill Pilgrim, general counsel and director of business affairs for USA Track and Field Inc., who teamed up with a physician to do research on transsexual athletes. “When a male-to-female transsexual undergoes hormone therapy, they are reducing their testosterone levels and taking female hormones. They lose muscle mass, which is the advantage testosterone gives you.”

Pilgrim said she believes the only sport in which men-to-women transsexuals might have an advantage is swimming, because these athletes gain body fat, which assists buoyancy.

“We haven’t seen a huge record of Renee Richards taking off with everything [in tennis] and Mianne Bagger winning all the golf circuits,” Carroll said.

Renee Richards, formerly Richard Raskind, sued the United States Tennis Association in 1976 for barring her from the U.S. Open. Richards later won the case, making her the first transsexual tennis player to compete.

Pilgrim said transsexuals who compete as men face a more problematic situation because they take testosterone, which is illegal under normal Olympic rules. These athletes can expect to be closely monitored to assure they are taking the appropriate amount of testosterone for their height and weight, Pilgrim said.

Slow acceptance
Carroll compared the struggle facing transsexual athletes to the gay and lesbian movement 20 years ago.

“People don’t understand who a transgendered person is at all. It’s not about their sexual orientation,” she said. “It’s about how they feel pertaining to gender. That’s a hard thing to wrap your head around.”

Worley said she’s waiting for a backlash among fellow cyclists after going public with her sex change.

But she added: “This could not be a more important issue — for sport and for society.”

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