Head of Team GB Olympic cycling calls for transgender rule change

Protests take place at the National Omnium Championships last week. The competition was almost boycotted by some female riders. Photograph: Paul Marriott/Shutterstock

The head of British Cycling’s Olympic and Paralympic programme has signed a letter calling for a rule change that would stop the transgender cyclist Emily Bridges from competing in women’s events.

Sara Symington, who rode at the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games and is now one of the most senior figures in British sport, is among 76 women who have urged cycling’s governing body, the UCI, to rescind its rules for trans women to “guarantee fairness for female athletes”.