Thirty-five-time national cyclocross champion Hannah Arensman said Wednesday on Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom” that one of the reasons she is retiring is her recent loss to a transgender competitor in the women’s championships.
Anchor Dana Perino said, “When we think of retirement we think of older people. How old are you now and would you have retired but for this situation?”
Arensman added, “There’s definitely multiple reasons why I walked away. But it is never right to have to end your season that way – to end your season flanked on either side by two guys in the elite women’s field and I don’t want to see any other girls young or my age or older have to go through that. It’s important to get to race in fair sport.”
She continued, “Biologically, men and women are different. Men are born with the ability to produce more testosterone and because of that they can build bigger muscles, they have bigger skeletal structure, they will develop a bigger heart, bigger lungs and so when you can pump more blood through your body quicker – when you can get more air into your lungs and into your cells – that produces a lot of differences in power.”
Arensman added, “In the sport of cycling, right now, the media really wants to push guys racing in the women’s field and along with that, a lot of the sponsors seem to feel that if you say anything against that you are hurting their brand. If you decide to speak out, you’ll probably will lose sponsorship. You’ll probably will lose your spot on your team, and you’ll get a lot of backlash on media. You might lose your job. There’s some people who would love to speak out. They’re afraid they will lose their job. A lot of cyclists, they don’t make ends meet with cycling, they have to have a daytime job. Then they train before or after their full-time job and then race on the weekends. It’s your whole livelihood at stake.”
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