EXCLUSIVE: Transgender male cyclist has history of harassing female Olympian

A biological male cyclist who identifies as a transgender woman has stoked outrage after winning a women’s cycling race in Pennsylvania last weekend. Todd Seplavy, who goes by the name "Tara", took the winning position against a 15-year-old girl during the women’s 3/4/5 at the Emrick Blvd Crit.

The 48-year-old biological male defeated the 15-year-old girl, Maya Brothers, to the finish line by 12 seconds.  Seplavy, who has been competing in the female category for competitive cycling for several years, also works as the deputy editor of Bicycling magazine, where he often defends the inclusion of transgender athletes in women’s sports. In a previous article, he signaled his support for Austin Killips- the transgender male who recently won in the female category at the Tour of the Gila championship in New Mexico–winning a $35,000 prize intended for women. Seplavy described those critical of Killips as peddling “hate speech” and described one group that protested the trans cyclist as an “anti transgender hate group.”

 

Instagram photo, Seplavy posted an image holding a trans-colored baseball bat captioned "Current Mood" while staring menacingly at the camera.

The post was accompanied by the hashtag #SmashtheCistem, a play on words for Smash the System that references completely destroying an opposition group–in this case destroying or smashing "cis" women.

In addition to his implied threat to women, Seplavy’s old Facebook private group messages, exclusively obtained by The Post Millennial, reveal disturbing misogynistic abuse towards women, and in particular a years-long targeted harassment campaign against an Olympic cyclist.

The Post Millennial spoke exclusively to three-time Olympic cyclist Inga Thompson, who has been subjected to a relentless cancel campaign from Seplavy over the Olympian's work to protect the female category in competitive women’s sports. In 2019, Thompson, who at the time sat on the board of directors for the Oregon Bicycle Racing Association (OBRA), wrote a letter to the International Olympics Committee (IOC), asking them to revisit the policy on the inclusion of transgender athletes in women’s sports. However, when Seplavy and other trans activists got word of Thompson's letter, they organized targeted protests against her and a continual campaign to silence her, ultimately leading to her resignation from the board of directors.

Thompson said that her only option was to resign so she could speak out freely after the OBRA caved into the demands of the activists. Following this, Seplavy posted the image holding the baseball bat to Twitter and Instagram, to which Thompson reposted it to call out the blatant threat towards her and other women that spoke out. Immediately after she posted, Seplavy filed a Safe Sports official complaint against Thompson, saying she posted the image without his consent.

In screenshots shared with The Post Millennial, Tara can be seen rallying trans activists to target the Olympian calling Thompson a “washed up hero,” and saying that she was in “violation of the Oregon Equality Act and could endanger bike racing just to protect her Transphobic views.” Seplavy also told the trans activists that “she [Thompson] is also soliciting in a separate post for Transphobic women racers to email as she’s getting meetings with USAC and UCI,” while an activist responded with “I pray USAC and UCI shut them down.”

The targeted hate campaign got so bad, Thompson was forced to hire an attorney after the U.S Center for Safe Sports complaint was filed against her for the alleged misgendering of Seplavy.

Despite all of this, Thompson continues to speak out for fairness in women’s sports, and just days ago appeared on Fox & Friends, urging female athletes to challenge sports bodies to reconsider their policies, saying: “Everyone that works in cycling has been silenced. We are now asking everyone to protest for the protection of women.” Thompson told The Post Millennial that the best way for female athletes to do this would be to peacefully make their voices heard by wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the word "WOMAN," a powerful symbolic gesture to show their support.