Heartbreaking words of female cyclist who quit sport after constant beatings by trans competitors

• Hannah Arensmen, a 35-time winner on the national cyclocross circuit, revealed her ordeal in an amicus letter to the Supreme Court
• West Virginia is fighting to have an injunction lifted so it can enact its Save Women’s Sports law to ban transathletes from competing against girls
• In a heartbreaking statement, Arensen described how she was “overlooked and humiliated” and retired from cycling as a result

A champion cyclist has quit the sport after constant beatings from transgender athletes, admitting in a heartbreaking message, “I lose no matter how hard I train.”

Hannah Arensmen, a 35-time winner on the national cyclocross circuit, revealed her ordeal in an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in support of West Virginia legislation seeking to ban transgender student-athletes from competing outside of their biological sex to participate.

An injunction from a lower court is currently preventing enforcement of the law over allegations that it violates Title IX of the Federal Gender Discrimination Act in Education.

Arensmen is among 67 athletes, coaches and family members who have asked the Supreme Court to intervene and provides a moving account of how she felt “overlooked and humiliated” after being defeated in races by male-born athletes.

It comes as transgender cyclist Tiffany Thomas, 46, blew the competition out of the water at the Randall’s Island crit event in New York over the weekend. Thomas, who only started cycling in 2018, is 14 years older than her oldest teammate.

Arensmen wrote in her amicus letter to the Supreme Court: “I was born into a family of athletes. Encouraged by my parents and siblings, I competed in sports from a young age and followed in my sister’s footsteps, rising to become an elite cyclocross racer.

“In recent years, I have had to compete directly with male cyclists in women’s races.

“As this has become more and more of a reality, it’s increasingly disheartening to train as hard as I do only to have to lose to a man with the unfair advantage of an androgenized physique that gives him an obvious advantage over me no matter how hard I do train.

“I have decided to end my cycling career. In my last race at the recent UCI Cyclocross National Championships in the elite women’s category in December 2022, I placed 4th flanked on either side by male riders who placed 3rd and 5th.

“My sister and family sobbed as they watched a man finish ahead of me after experiencing multiple physical interactions with him during the race.

“Also, I have a hard time contemplating the very real possibility that I was overlooked for a male competitor for an international selection on the US team at Cyclocross Worlds in February 2023.

“Going forward, I feel for young girls who are learning to compete and who are growing up on a day when they no longer have a fair chance to become 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 women’s sport rule makers no longer feel it is necessary to protect women’s sport to ensure fair competition for women.”

In West Virginia, Attorney General Patrick Morrissey filed an emergency motion with the Supreme Court earlier this month, asking that a lower court’s decision be overturned so that it could enforce its women’s protections law.

The law, signed in 2021, aims to ban transgender women and girls from participating in public school sports other than those of their biological sex.

The law is being challenged by 12-year-old Becky Pepper-Jackson, who was allowed to compete in middle school cross-country and track events due to an injunction from the US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Pepper-Jackson’s attorneys argued in court filings filed Monday that the state’s claim that he was harmed by the injunction was unfounded.

“In short, the request falls short of the kind of urgent and compelling circumstances required for an extraordinary appeal by this court,” the filing reads.

“There is no basis for this court to ban BPJ from the field, where she has spent her entire middle school career and where her presence does no harm to anyone.”

Lawyers said enforcing the law would result in BPJ losing their “second family.”

Morrisey, a Republican, defended the law, stating, “Our case is simple: it’s about protecting opportunities for women and girls in sport.”

West Virginia lawmakers argue that transgender women and girls have physical advantages over biological women that ruin competition in sports.

At least eight states enacted similar bans in 2022.