Steve Scott’s interview with “Emily” Bridges wasn’t his first rodeo. He was pouring on the sympathy and flattery all the way back in June 2022.

Online abuse has become a way of life for Emily Bridges: “It is very difficult to read everything people are saying about you, and it hurts, it hurts.”

Maybe – and this is just a suggestion – if you weren’t cheating women in their own sport people wouldn’t be saying things about you that you find “difficult.” Maybe the people wouldn’t be hurty if you weren’t so cheaty.

Bridges has become one of the most talked about athletes in Britain and the discussions about her are seldom nuanced. She sits at the centre of a polarising issue that sport in general is struggling to reconcile.

Why do the discussions about him – HIM, not her – have to be nuanced? His cheating isn’t nuanced.

He makes an odd admission toward the end of the piece.

For Bridges, though, how much of it is about medals and winning, compared to inclusion?

“The whole appeal of cycling as a sport for me, and sport in general, is about the struggle.

“I want to fight to get the best out of myself, to get the best performance that I can do. It’s not about the winning for me. Obviously, I like winning, I want to win, but it’s secondary to being allowed to compete – being given the opportunity to get the most out of myself, on an equal playing field, against people who have an equal performance to me.”

If that’s true, he should still be competing against men.