EDMONTON — Allison Hadley says she’s having trouble focusing on her training for an upcoming cross-country ski competition.

If an Alberta bill restricting transgender women in sports passes, she fears she won’t be able to register for the event she’s been competing in for years.

“I just feel empty,” Hadley, 44, said in a telephone interview from Edmonton.

“It’s a sport I want to continue doing until I no longer have the mobility to do it.”

Competing has helped her stay healthy, motivated and feel less isolated, she said.

“It’s my reason to go out. I feel free and at peace when I ski.”

The Alberta United Conservative Party government introduced the Fair and Safe Sport Act last week. It passed the first reading in the Legislative Assembly.

If passed, it would ban transgender athletes from competing in women’s amateur sports, require schools and sports organizations to report eligibility complaints and see the creation of sports leagues with “co-ed” divisions.

Sports Minister Joseph Schow said athletes across Alberta are missing out on opportunities because they have to compete against transgender athletes. However, he said the province does not track the number of transgender athletes.

At a news conference Thursday, Schow said the proposed changes would include a self-reporting honor system, with more details to be worked out if the bill passes.

“If there are any disputes, we will work with provincial sporting organizations and other stakeholders to ensure we resolve them on a case-by-case basis,” he said.

Organizations will also be able to contact the province to help them implement the new rules, he added.

His press secretary, Amber Edgerton, did not want to specify which sports organizations were consulted. She also would not say whether the province would fund the creation of mixed divisions.

Hadley, born and raised in Edmonton, played rugby for nine years on a local team before competing in cross-country skiing.

She decided to leave the rugby team after coming out to some of its members and not feeling welcome, she said. Conversations in the locker room were difficult to listen to.

“There were a lot of jokes and unwelcoming comments about trans people and even gay people,” she said.

She decided to become a solo athlete, she explained, because several sports associations have policies allowing transgender athletes to compete in the gender division with which they identify.

Hadley said she competed in the men’s cross-country division until 2021, when she made the transition.

The associations required her to undergo hormone replacement therapy for a year, ensuring stable levels, before moving on to competing with women, she said.

The hormonal changes decreased her endurance and strength, she added, and she began recording slower ski times.

“I haven’t won any races,” she said.

Transgender women in sports are often told that they have an advantage because of their testosterone levels, Hadley said, but hers are much lower than those of the average woman.

She also found that some transgender women are targeted because of their strong frames, but that doesn’t give them a competitive advantage. It also calls into question the reality that there are also tall and strong non-transgender women, she added.

“Trans athletes train very hard and feel like any success is based solely on their genetics.”

Hadley said the lack of detail in Alberta’s plan has created confusion.

“It’s just banning something without providing a solution,” she said. “It’s being presented as being in everyone’s best interest, when that’s not the case.”

It is also unclear how the new divisions would be created, regulated and financed.

“Where does this extra money come from, or is it just left in the hands of (the associations), and then nothing happens and transgender people just don’t have a place to compete?” Hadley said.

She said it’s also unclear why the Alberta government is focusing on the province’s transgender community, given that it is relatively small.

“I feel like the government in my country is trying to sweep me under the rug,” Hadley said.

She said transgender people already feel isolated in sports and in society.

“I get elbowed in the head a little too often on the bus for it to be an accident.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published November 8, 2024.

— With files from Aaron Sousa

Fakiha Baig, The Canadian Press