Transgender Cyclist – The Story of Jillian Bearden

I first started riding a bike at a young age of 3, and my love for riding bikes was born while living in Monument. All of my friends were spread out, so to see one another we had to ride everywhere—having a sweet bike was a big thing! I started really hitting the trails when I was about 23 years old. At 28 years I raced my first Criterium, and I was hooked! From the outside looking in everything was great in my life, but all along I was battling many inner demons that had control over my thoughts and feelings. I felt trapped, but I found that I could use my bike as a safe place and a place to release the stress that was building up inside of me.

Jillian Bearden was born Jonathan Bearden. Jillian is a transgender athlete who races bikes. At 36 years of age, she has made many contributions to the cycling and community in general in Colorado Springs, and is now helping to pave the way for transgender cyclists nationwide.

Jillian Bearden racing at the University of Denver Criterium

Jillian racing a crit in 2016

We cannot ignore the presence of transgender athletes, and many sport governing bodies are seeking ways to work with athletes that do change genders. The NCAA and the International Olympic Committee have drafted policies, and National Governing Bodies realized that it is also time to address this issue. The name of the game is fair competition, and this is even more important in the elite ranks.

 

 

While this is a story that will keep evolving over the next several years, let’s take a look into where things stand.

Female to Male. There tends to be less concern with the female to male transition in terms of fairness of competition.

The rules as stated by the IOC:

“Those who transition from female to male are eligible to compete in the male category without restriction.”

But they would still need to comply with WADA, and any other organization as far as hormone levels is concerned. “Nothing in these guidelines is intended to undermine in any way the requirement to comply with the World Anti-Doping Code and the WADA International Standards.”

Female to male transgender athletes wishing to compete in sanctioned events need to file a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) with the appropriate agency (USADA and/or WADA.) The athlete needs to show that their testosterone levels are within normal physiological values.

Currently the most prominent male transgender athlete is Chris Mosier. You might have seen him in a Nike commercial or the EPSN body issue. He has recently competed on the USA Triathlon National Team Duathlon Worlds. He is also helping provide information for athletes regarding transgender policies at transathlete.com.

Male to Female. Athletes that are making this transition and under quite a bit more scrutiny. Testosterone levels need to be closely monitored. Because in general men are stronger than women, the question that is often asked is that do female athletes, who may have previously trained as men, maintain an advantage, even after transition?  (We’ll compare some times for Jillian in part 2 of this story.)

Jillian, as Jonathan, before transition

Before transition

Those who transition from male to female are eligible to compete in the female category under the following conditions of the IOC.

2.1. The athlete has declared that her gender identity is female. The declaration cannot be changed, for sporting purposes, for a minimum of four years.

2.2. The athlete must demonstrate that her total testosterone level in serum has been below 10 nmol/L for at least 12 months prior to her first competition (with the requirement for any longer period to be based on a confidential case-by-case evaluation, considering whether or not 12 months is a sufficient length of time to minimize any advantage in women’s competition).

2.3. The athlete’s total testosterone level in serum must remain below 10 nmol/L throughout the period of desired eligibility to compete in the female category.

2.4. Compliance with these conditions may be monitored by testing. In the event of non-compliance, the athlete’s eligibility for female competition will be suspended for 12 months.

 

Hormones.

Hormone therapy is a necessary part of the gender transition process.

Female to male: This is typically done via testosterone injection. The testosterone increases muscle mass, decreases body fat, deepens the voice, and produces more body hair.

Male to female: Those making this transition will take testosterone blockers (anti-androgens) to lower their testosterone levels. They also take estrogen and progesterone, which decreases muscle mass and changes fat distribution1.

Normal Testosterone levels2:
Men: 9–38 nmol/L
Women: 0.52–2.4 nmol/L

Hormone testing.

Currently there is no “transgender checking.” The burden is on the athlete to ensure they are within appropriate hormone levels. If she were to get tested and be out of appropriate range, she could be sanctioned just as any athlete is who is caught doping. Jillian gets her hormone levels checked about every 4 months.

Jillian needed the bike.

Jillian Bearden in her Naked Race kitJillian, as Jonathan, had a Cat 1 license as a mountain biker. Cycling was a huge part of her person. It helped her get through a rough time after she lost her brother to suicide.

Once I was in a pretty good place with respect to my brother’s passing, I wanted to honor Chris’ life and raise awareness for suicide, help other families through their loss of a loved one, and also help prevent further suicides in our community. After hundreds if not thousands of hours on a bike working through Chris’ devastating suicide, I came up with an idea for a bike event for suicide prevention. In 2008, a ride called “Ride to Save a Suicide” and a little later a race called the “Turtle Challenge” were born—the latter name reflects my brother’s and my love for turtles. [Author’s note: I first met Jillian as Jonathan at this ride.]

Cycling was Jonathan’s release, and it is also Jillian’s.

Jillian wanted to race again, race with the gender she identified with, but she understood that at the time of her initial transition, the rules wouldn’t really let her. Jillian is a competitor, but wants to compete fairly. And this is the goal of USA Cycling as they currently crafting their transgender policy.

 

What is USA Cycling doing to ensure a fair playing field?

The new IOC rules regarding transgender athletes in competition, especially male to female, give specific physiological measurements for athletes to follow, and gives a much better set of guidelines for the National Governing Bodies to create their own policies.

USA Cycling’s Technical Director, Chuck Hodge, is the one working on the USAC policy, and when we first spoke (August 2016) the policy draft was in a legal review. It is now out of review and they are working with USADA about impacts of hormones and hormone suppression. They are also working up a methodology of deciding where to “draw the line” in regards to requiring hormone suppression. USA Cycling’s goals are to

  1. Do the right thing
  2. Protect the rights of all USA Cycling members

Lower category, non-elite riders simply self-select gender. The elites, of course, are always under additional scrutiny (though we’re seeing more age groupers get caught up in the RaceClean initiative) and any elite who has transitioned from male to female will have to be diligent as their hormone levels can be monitored.

For athletes who did not have a racing license prior to transition, there is really nothing they need to do differently. If they’ve legally changed their name and meet the required hormone levels, then they simply apply for a cat 4/cat 5 license and work their way up to their ability, just like everyone else. The risks they are taking are just like all other athletes – if they win, they may get tested.

But what about the competitor pre-transition who wants to race post-transition? This is a little more complex. So we’ll take a look at Jillian as a case study in Part 2 – Jillian Joins a Race Team.

References:

  1. http://www.transgendercare.com/medical/resources/tmf_program/tmf_program_6.asp
  2.  http://www.emedicinehealth.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=129553

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Comments

10 Comments

  1. jane smith

    Visibility isn’t for everyone. Some of us just want to exist without risk of being singled out and discriminated against. Keep that in mind when you are so loud about things like this.

    • John

      Are you trying to say that this article shouldn’t exist?

    • Heather Noble

      Did that person say that? This is not lit crit class.

  2. Mr Logic

    Isn’t it surprising how a male to female trans person can ride their bike faster than a cis gender woman? I mean, I was shocked! To think that, in a bike race, the former male is the superior athlete….I mean…whodathunkit?

    • Sabrina

      How do you figure? Did you even read the article? Have you ever been on a regiment of Spironolactone and Estradiol and tried to maintain your performance? Do you not trust the IOC?

      • Nick

        you do understand that were allowed to complete with up to 4 times as much testosterone

  3. Heather Noble

    I’m surprise every single female who cycled that race isn’t outraged. What total bulls**t. I’m all about people’s personal choices, but allowing this? When we all know that a natural born man, no matter the hormones he’s taking now, has a MUCH better chance of beating ANY natural born female without as much hard work (whoa, I didn’t say Jillian didn’t work hard, folks)…but come on. So this is the price we pay for advocating for trans rights, now female athletes have to compete against them like it’s fair. If that’s true, then men’s and women’s divisions need to be ELIMINATED. These categories exist for a reason, fairness is the primary one. But if the trans community insists it’s fair to have Jillian compete against women, then men and women should all be competing together. You can’t have both.

    • Johnny

      I would have thought that a “Nicole” type overreaction didn’t show up earlier.

      Is Jillian a national or world champion….no.

  4. sixhundred

    Congratulations for her, and I do hope that many more transgender women (or other trans people of all genders) will triumph in such sports events. This shows that our society is really progressing the good way and trans people get more and more accepted in every area of life.
    I am really outraged that there are people who may think that this is unfair. Hey, everyone should choose his/her/(other pronouns) own gender and everyone has a right to participate on sports events. And of course there are a lot of scientific studies showing that there are absolutely no gender diferences except for the genitalia.

  5. Confused

    I think in large part it depends on how good an athlete the person was before the change. There are plenty of males who can’t beat the females anyway, and they’re certainly not going to beat them if they transgender.

    Then, there’s Molly Cameron.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. Transgender Cyclist - Jillian Joins a Race Team - 303 Cycling - […] (Read Part 1 – Transgender Cyclist – The Story of Jillian Bearden) […]
  2. Tucson Transgender Community is Growing and Supportive - […] In 2016 a transgender woman won the 2016 Tour de Tucson. http://tucson.com/news/local/columnists/steller/tim-steller-transgender-cyclist-s-win-in-tucson-was-fairer/article_0851e258-2eb6-540a-8e60-1875e7bc836d.html https://303cycling.com/transgender-cyclist-story-jillian-bearden/ […]
  3. Jillian Beardan, first female transgender cyclist to ride in a pro U.S. peloton, emerges as beacon… – 303 Cycling - […] Transgender Cyclist – The Story of Jillian Bearden Transgender Cyclist – Jillian Joins a Race Team […]
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