Tennis legend Martina Navratilova and former Olympic British distance runner Mara Yamauchi were among those to slam Austin Killips after the transgender cyclist finished in first place at the Belgian Waffle Ride in North Carolina.
Killips finished ahead of Paige Onweller and Flavia Oliveira and talked about the win after the race. Killips won in 8 hours, 28 minutes and 7 seconds, beating out Onweller by about four minutes and Oliveira by seven minutes.
Austin Killips on the podium after the women's elite race, the "Kasteelcross," in January 2023. (David Pintens/Belga Mag/AFP via Getty Images)
"It was just a grueling effort. I’m just really proud to lay it out there and get the result," Killips said after the race. "After BC, I kind of get how things work now. Like, you really want to be up front going into those technical single-track sections and I kind of asserted myself there and was able to get a gap early.
"Then, got a flat, and then we were kind of all riding together for quite a while. I have a cross background and was just like I’m going to attack these single-track sections as hard as I can and try to establish a gap again and did that at… God, I don’t even know what mile but one of the mid-race single track sections I just kind of hammered and was able to stay clear and pull it together."
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Austin Killips and Martina Navratilova (Getty Images)
But Navratilova and others were not happy.
"What a joke," the former tennis star tweeted.
Killips gained the national spotlight last month after becoming the first transgender woman to win a UCI event.
Two-time Olympian Mara Yamauchi speaks at an event on Oct. 28, 2017, in Germany. (Ulrich Roth/Getty Images)
Since then, the uproar has caused USA Cycling to ask its members about transgender participation in the sport. It also caused an uproar.