Mountainbiking: Scorned transsexual backs ban on rival

Canadian downhill mountainbike champion Michele Dumaresq says compatriot Danika Schroeter deserves to be barred from the world championships in Rotorua this month.

Schroeter's racing licence has been suspended because she mocked Dumaresq, a transsexual, on the winners' podium.

The suspension may cost Schroeter the chance to compete at the two-day world championships in New Zealand, starting on August 26, but Dumaresq said it was in order.

"I think it was the right move," she said. "That was a display of very unsportsmanlike behaviour.

"I felt someone who is willing to make a stunt like that on a national stage should not represent the country."

On July 23, Dumaresq - born Michael - won her third national title on the downhill course at Whistler, British Columbia, beating Schroeter by one second.

On the podium - and afterwards - Schroeter wore a T-shirt with the handwritten message, "100 Per Cent Pure Woman's Champ 2006".

Dumaresq has been a target since being officially accepted by the national federation as a woman in 2002.

Some women racers feel she has an unfair physical advantage because she was born a man.

Others say Dumaresq's surgery couldn't cut out 25 years of being a boy and a man and being taught a male's attitude toward risk-taking, danger and being aggressive in sport - the qualities required to be a good downhiller.

Dumaresq, 36, of Vancouver, had surgery seven years ago and her birth certificate now identifies her as a woman.

She has represented Canada twice at world championships, and been the subject of a documentary film entitled 100 Per Cent Woman - which was the inspiration for the wording on Schroeter's mocking T-shirt.

She said Schroeter had made a personal apology.

The Canadian Cycling Association said Schroeter had to appeal by Saturday (NZ time) if she wanted to try to regain the right to compete at the world championships.

- NZPA