RILEY GAINES PODCAST: Inga Thompson's Fight For Fair Women's Sports
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
164.61479
Summary
Ingrid Thompson is a three-time World Champion and a trailblazer for protecting women's sports. She has been on three Olympic teams, won three medals at the World Championships, and placed in the podium at the Tour de France. Ingrid is a leading voice on the issue of gender dysphoria in the LGBTQ+ community.
Transcript
00:00:03.400
Break through the busiest time of year with the brand new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus.
00:00:09.700
With real-time guidance and endless ways to move,
00:00:12.280
you can personalize your workouts and train with confidence.
00:00:21.620
Explore the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus at onepeloton.ca.
00:00:36.840
This week, I am so, so excited to have this guest on.
00:00:47.780
she's a trailblazer for protecting women's sports.
00:00:58.660
We just spent some time together down in Knoxville,
00:01:01.460
where we kind of orchestrated this rally alongside some other groups,
00:01:06.040
And we'll get into how it was powerful in a little bit.
00:01:08.520
But I want you to just start off by sharing your accomplishments,
00:01:14.040
and really how you got to the position that you're in now.
00:01:17.160
I originally started off as a runner for 10 years.
00:01:20.340
So I had, boy, I started training, I think, when I was 10 years old.
00:01:24.680
I mean, that's what all of us do to get to the level that we're at,
00:01:31.360
So I had 10 years as a runner under this amazing coach, Lyle Freeman,
00:01:39.560
And I picked up a bike, you know, just to try to train,
00:01:44.180
And then I saw on the TV they had the first women's Tour de France ever.
00:01:48.980
They were going to have the first women's Olympic road race ever in bicycling.
00:01:54.980
Thinking I could just like, at least for the Tour de France,
00:01:57.540
I thought I could just sign up like any runner does.
00:02:01.520
I mean, absolutely clueless to the, you know, the team dynamic
00:02:10.020
And I think I did five or six races and qualified to go to the Olympic trials.
00:02:13.880
And I'm like, you know, and went to the Olympic trials
00:02:23.260
And from there, I've been on three Olympic teams
00:02:25.500
and I've got three medals at the world championships
00:02:28.580
and 10 national championships and podium finishes
00:02:42.140
you've got to have kind of like the perfect storm.
00:02:46.800
You have to have the gift of the physical genetics.
00:02:56.300
And then you have to find the sport that fits you.
00:02:59.200
And as a runner, I was too tall, too, you know, the list can go on.
00:03:03.160
But you put me on a bike and the fit was perfect.
00:03:16.120
While, of course, there are benefits to playing sports
00:03:19.180
and the good and most certainly outweighs the bad,
00:03:22.940
The amount of time and the amount of dedication
00:03:25.080
and the effort and the sacrifices that you have to make
00:03:50.040
What got me into it, actually, let's step back.
00:04:05.080
and that when they dropped their testosterone level,
00:04:16.480
was being dominated by men with gender dysphoria.
00:04:20.540
And then I started hearing the women talking about
00:04:52.120
If that was a woman saying stuff about other women,
00:05:23.540
and including transgender people is so important,
00:05:47.000
to compete in, they would have a well-established sport
00:05:57.420
if they had just done it correctly from the beginning.
00:06:04.700
And, and even though the International Cycling Union
00:06:10.020
now another set of people are really going to be hurt.
00:06:19.300
And I'm just, I'm very sorry that this rule was ever passed
00:06:22.580
to begin with because of the amount of hate that has gone on,
00:06:28.900
people that have been vilified, wrongly called transphobia.
00:06:32.740
I mean, this has just been the worst social experiment
00:06:43.580
And then, then I vaguely remember hearing about
00:06:59.360
just when I thought that I couldn't be more upset,
00:07:12.060
and to think that the first time that I was exposed to a man
00:07:18.920
Everything seems so benign right at the beginning.
00:07:28.000
And I, the term social experiment that you use,
00:07:37.980
being the collateral damage in this social experiment,
00:08:28.640
was when I had put forth a letter to the Olympic community.
00:34:44.640
see how much shade is thrown at Lance Armstrong
00:35:14.880
I thought it was incredibly valuable perspectives.
00:35:17.740
Um, and I thought that he was able to learn a lot
00:35:45.720
women have more coverage, then more sponsorship
00:35:56.400
started becoming aware of transgender women in the
00:36:06.620
layers and levels that I don't even know how to
00:36:09.300
go into, but not everything is about, you know,
00:36:15.000
There's so much emotional support that needs to
00:36:18.160
Women who have been great and the issues that they
00:36:23.800
have trying to sit on a saddle after they, I mean,
00:36:27.640
these are, these are some of the things that I've
00:36:29.940
taken on, women who are in abusive, um, contracts
00:36:37.640
And, and so the, the foundation helps women in, in
00:36:45.760
And then it kind of turned into this, we realized,
00:36:50.560
many of us realized that women's sports would be
00:36:52.900
gone in 20 years if we didn't tackle this topic
00:36:57.940
And so the last few years, you know, the majority
00:37:03.480
And then I hope to one day be able to put 100% of
00:37:11.640
And all in the meantime, we are grateful for you.
00:37:25.300
I think a lot of people only became aware of this
00:37:31.220
situation and the national coverage that that got.
00:37:39.140
So, and likewise, you're taking on the whole Leah
00:37:43.520
Thomas is what really amplified this and around and kind
00:37:50.580
We may have been speaking longer than you have, but we
00:37:55.380
And you had the voice that, that was heard because you had
00:38:00.860
that first one-on-one experience of being in the locker
00:38:05.960
rooms and the, and the losses that you suffered where the
00:38:10.520
And I call it, you were the first one in the trenches to
00:38:17.740
Well, I'm very, um, I imagine we will continue having our
00:38:22.040
arms linked and creating an army of people behind us to do
00:38:34.340
Thanks for joining the Games for Girls podcast.
00:38:37.020
Make sure you check out this podcast at outkick.com or
00:38:40.560
anywhere where you stream your podcasts, Apple, Spotify,