U.S. cyclocross champion Hannah Arensman says she is leaving the sport after recently finishing fourth between transgender “women” despite her 35 championship wins.
The decision by the 25-year-old Arensman was revealed in a brief filed by the state of West Virginia to the Supreme Court in support of its Save Women’s Sports law, which limits transgender athletes to playing school sports in categories that correspond to their birth gender, not the gender they “identify” as, according to Fox News.
Radical transgender activists are suing West Virginia to have the law repealed, claiming that it violates federal Title IX rules. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently reinstated a preliminary injunction blocking the law while the court case continues.
Arensman joined 66 other athletes in calling on the Supreme Court to vacate the injunctions and to rule that West Virginia’s law is constitutional. In the brief, she said she retired from her sport in December because of the invasion of trans “women” into the sport of cycling.
Hannah Arensman of the USA cools down after the Junior Women’s Individual Time Trial during Individual Time Trial during day two of the UCI Road World Championships on October 10, 2016, in Doha, Qatar. (Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)
She recently came in fourth place, with transgender cyclists Austin Phillips winning third and Jenna Lingwood finishing fifth. That was apparently her final straw.
“I was born into a family of athletes. Encouraged by my parents and siblings, I competed in sports from a young age, and I followed in my sister’s footsteps, climbing the ranks to become an elite cyclocross racer,” Arensman said in her statement. “Over the past few years, I have had to race directly with male cyclists in women’s events. As this has become more of a reality, it has become increasingly discouraging to train as hard as I do only to have to lose to a man with the unfair advantage of an androgenized body that intrinsically gives him an obvious advantage over me, no matter how hard I train.”
“I have decided to end my cycling career. At my last race at the recent UCI Cyclocross National Championships in the elite women’s category in December 2022, I came in 4th place, flanked on either side by male riders awarded 3rd and 5th places. My sister and family sobbed as they watched a man finish in front of me, having witnessed several physical interactions with him throughout the race,” she continued.
“Additionally, it is difficult for me to think about the very real possibility I was overlooked for an international selection on the US team at Cyclocross Worlds in February 2023 because of a male competitor,” she lamented.
Hannah Arensman of the United States competes in the Junior Women’s Individual Time Trial during day two of the UCI Road World Championships on October 10, 2016, in Doha, Qatar. (Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)
“Moving forward, I feel for young girls learning to compete and who are growing up in a day when they no longer have a fair chance at being the new record holders and champions in cycling because men want to compete in our division. I have felt deeply angered, disappointed, overlooked, and humiliated that the rule makers of women’s sports do not feel it is necessary to protect women’s sports to ensure fair competition for women anymore,” Arensman concluded.
Arensman has 35 wins on her record and finished in the top five in all seven of her last races.
As if to highlight Arensman’s position on the issue, a biological male won the women’s division of the Randall’s Island Crit in New York City just last weekend.
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