A transgender Canadian cyclist has released a memoir highlighting her transition and battle for acceptance by world sporting bodies.
Kristen Worley, who was born male and adopted from New Zealand by a conservative Toronto couple in 1966, co-wrote ”Woman Enough” with Johanna Schneller.
Worley hit the headlines in 2017, when she challenged the gender policies of the International Olympic Committee and related sports bodies.
She became the first athlete in the world to submit to the IOC's gender verification process, but the committee objected to her use of testosterone supplements, which Worley argued she needed to stay healthy.
“Through my transition we learned, based on the policies of the IOC, my body started to fail me because I didn’t have the hormonal capacity to metabolize my body,” Worley told CTV’s Your Morning.
She filed a complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, arguing that there was no science behind the policies of the IOC and other sporting bodies.
“There are policies allowing young women to be violated through gender verification,” she said.
“It became a human rights case, not because I deserved to compete, I had to prove the sciences to the IOC, world cycling and the Canadian sporting system.
“A private entity in Switzerland (IOC) is now overriding laws in Canada under the Olympic movement. When they were here in court in Toronto… their biggest concern was that they would lose the autonomy of sport.”
While living as a man, Worley married Alison Worley.
They were together for 18 years – 11 before she transitioned and seven years after -- until they divorced in 2011.
“She is now my step-sister within the Worley family,” Worley told CTV’s Your Morning.
“The Worley family and their embrace saved my life.”
