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Living as a woman, and taking female hormones would put Michelle Dumaresq at a severe disadvantage if she were to compete against men.
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Isn't that a choice she is making? I know that there are serious emotional and personal issues surrounding the decision to change your sex, and I do not pretend to understand the kind of personal struggle someone goes through shen they make that decision. However, when it comes down to it she did make that decision. Nowhere does it say that we have a right to make a living riding a bicycle.

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Should she be barred from all competition because she had the surgery? Or should she only compete agaiinst people who can beat her?
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Why not. Isn't that what every other athlete is doing? Should she compete only against people she can beat because of a biological advantage. This is a bit murky, because when it comes down to it all athletic competition involves people winning who have biologcial advantages. My personal opinion is that the traditional Men's classes are essentially open classes where the fastest or best athletes compete, and the women's classes are to provide athletes with an obvious biological disadvantage (naturally lower testosterone levels) a forum to compete.


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There was never an issue about Michelle Dumaresq competing as a woman until she started to win.
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I do not know the history, but I would be surprised if this were true. I would think that there are women she races against who were pretty upset about it right from the start.

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I think the issues here are pretty complex. The fact that most of us have deeply negative gut reactions to the very thought of sexual reassignment surgery only confuses issues more.-end quote-

I agree with you. This is pretty complex. I am dissapointed at some people's reaction to the story. However, I think the issues get at the essential nature of sport. There is always a winner and a looser, and the winner is usually the person who has trained hard AND who has the better genes to carry them past everyone else who has trained just as hard (and maybe some luck). We as a society have determined that men are more competitive than women at sport (mainly because they have different genes not better genes), so separate classes were created so these two halves of our society could have equal opportunity to compete (a good thing).

Should she be able to compete with women? Personally I think it is suspect, but obviously people more knowledgeable than I think otherwise. She obviously would not make such a massive life change just to be a competitive downhill racer; however, she does have a significantly different genetic makeup than everyone she is competing against. Not better genes, but different genes. All I can say is I hope she rides like hell and enjoys the ride as long as she has it.

Are there any women who compete in these races (or other races) on this forum?

What do you think?