Hannah Arensman, a 35-time winner on the national cyclocross circuit, is officially retiring from her sport of choice and it isn’t because she cannot physically do it anymore.
Champion cyclocross rider Hannah Arensman angrily quit the sport after losing to a transgender rider, which was a decision that was followed just days later by another trans cyclist declaring she felt like a “superhero” for her women’s race win in New York.
“I have decided to end my cycling career,” Arensman said.
Arensman revealed in an amicus brief filed to the Supreme Court last week that she retired from the sport after finishing in fourth place in between two transgender females. The brief was filed in support of the state of West Virginia and its Save Women’s Sports law.
“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 wrote, in a statement also shared by the Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS).
“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.”
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She said that 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 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,” she wrote.
“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,” she wrote in the filing.
Over the weekend, trans cyclist Tiffany Thomas raised her hands in victory as she stood at the top of the podium at the Randall’s Island Crit. It was her 20th win since she started racing in 2018.
Arensman had finished in the top five in her final seven races.
