Former U.S. Olympic cyclist Inga Thompson admitted in a recent interview that although she is a lifelong Democrat, she was hopeful for Donald Trump’s next presidency because of his stance on protecting women and girls in sports.
Trump’s promise to end trans inclusion in women’s sports has been a major sticking point in his campaign. Pro-Trump campaign ads during the election season portrayed Vice President Kamala Harris as being in the corner allowing transgender women to compete with biological women. Trump even called the inclusion of trans people in women’s sports policies “so far distant.”
That’s when Thompson found herself rooting for him.
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Inga Thompson trains for the women’s road race at the World Cycling Championships in September 1986 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (David Madison/Getty Images)
“I don’t want my boyfriend to hear that, because we’re both Democrats. I hated Trump, because I’m from Reno, Nevada, near the casinos,” she told the Telegraph. “I grew up with a lot of people who worked in gaming and we hated Trump. I knew people who would make deals with him and then he would walk away. The first time he ran for office, I I made fun of him.
“This time, my position is: ‘If he wants to protect women, I will vote for him.’ This is the biggest threat to women I can think of in my generation. And I have to vote for women. »
Thompson is one of the former athletes who led the battle to exclude biological males from women’s sports. Those views cost her a job as manager of a cycling team after she called on cyclists to protest the Union Cycliste Internationale’s (UCI) policy regarding transgender athletes in 2023.
Thompson told the newspaper she was angry at Democrats who support trans inclusion in women’s sports.
“Have they not learned the lesson of the Olympic Games about their deafness, their blindness to what they do to women?” she said. “I’m angry at the party, being a Democrat myself, because they continue to throw women under the bus. It would have been so easy for them to allow common sense to return. But they won’t. is the straw that breaks the camel’s back.” “.
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From left, Frenchwoman Jeannie Longo, Frenchwoman Valérie Simmonet and American Inga Thompson celebrate on the podium after the Vail Criterium stage of the Coors International Bicycle Classic, August 11, 1985, in Vail, Colorado. (David Madison/Getty Images)
Thompson said she doesn’t believe it’s a “right-wing Republican issue.” She said all she and Democrats like her want is “balance.”
“None of us are radical, we’re just about common sense. After their response to the Women in Sports Protection Act, they lost me forever. That’s when- then you realize that the party has lost the ground,” she added.
Thompson is far from the only Democrat to oppose this particular policy. A New York Times/Ipsos poll released this weekend finds that a majority of Democrats also don’t think transgender athletes should be allowed to compete in women’s sports.
“Thinking about transgender female athletes – that is, athletes who were male at birth but currently identify as female – do you think they should or should not be allowed to compete in sports feminine?” » asked the survey.
Of the 2,128 people who participated, 79% said biological males who identify as female should not be allowed to participate in women’s sports.
Of the 1,025 people who identified as Democrats or Democratic-leaning, 67% said transgender athletes should not be allowed to compete with women.
Donald Trump will be inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Some of that was seen in the House of Representatives earlier this month when two Democrats voted alongside Republican lawmakers to ban athletes born male from participating on girls’ school sports teams.
The Protecting Women and Girls in Sports Act, led by Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., would amend federal law to clarify that student-athletes must participate on school sports teams that coincide with their gender at birth.
The bill will go to the Senate.
