Cyclist, 24, abandoned Olympic dream after ‘sickening’ losses to biological male

A female cyclist who gave up her dream of competing in the Olympics after losing to a biological man said the experience “hurt on a million different levels.”

Hannah Arensman, 24, retired from cyclocross after also being assaulted by a left-wing Antifa gun club who protested at her last race after claiming ‘there is a massive TERF [trans-exclusionary radical feminists] bike problem.

Arensman is a 35-time winner on the national cyclo-cross circuit and previously opened up in heartbreaking details about her decision to leave the sport. She said the inclusion of trans competitors meant she would “lose no matter how hard I train.”

She retired from the sport after losing a podium finish to trans rider Austin Killips in the Women Elite category at the December 2022 National Cyclocross Championships. It would be her last competitive race.

In her final comments on the decision, she said, “There are a million different levels where it hurts.”

Trans rider Austin Killips beat Arensman to a podium finish at the December 2022 Cyclo-cross National Championships

Arensman’s experience comes amid the growing row over the inclusion of trans women in female sports categories. She has now also chosen to advocate for protected categories for women.

She told the Daily telegram“I realized that if the opportunity arose to say something on behalf of other women, I would take it.

“This has gone on long enough, it has gone far enough. It should never have come to this, it should never have been allowed. Someone has to take responsibility.

“This is not a fair sport and the governing bodies, who should have made the rules in the beginning, need to realize that. It is precisely the people who should protect our sport that are not doing so.’

Arensman’s final race was also marred by demonstrations by the John Brown Gun Club, a self-described “left-wing gun rights group” that “arms itself to defend against far-right violence.”

Masked members of the group attended the race to “support two trans athletes racing in the Elite Women’s Division,” according to a tweet featuring a photo of their protest.

The group also celebrated Arensman’s firing, saying, “I hope we helped her find the door. She won’t be missed.’

Speaking of the toxic nature of the trans inclusion debate, Arensman said, “It just adds to the utter disrespect. If you have to use physical force to control other people so that you can do what you want, something is seriously wrong. It’s a form of tyranny.’

Killips is said to have pushed Arensman’s in her last race. Arensman said, “I fully expect that in cycling, as a full-body contact sport, you’re going to get hit at some point. But if you’ve born someone who meets you as a man, over six feet tall, it’s very different.”

Footage from the race itself also purports to show Killips pushing Arensman as the pair crossed on the track.

Arensman said, “I fully expect that in cycling, as a full-body contact sport, you’re going to get hit at some point.

“But when someone born comes across a man who is over six feet tall, it’s very different. I tried to keep racing, not to let it get into my head at all. However, that one case caught on video felt unnecessary.

“At best, it was a complete lack of control skills. Women who have been doing this for 15 or 20 years have built up a lot of technical prowess. But there is only a certain point that we can reach with our muscles. We can’t compete beyond that.’

Arensman also criticized the possibility of Killips being able to compete in the Olympics, adding, “A man, even if he is mediocre in the men’s field, is more than capable of breaking records and taking podiums in women’s races.”

Her comments also follow another cycling controversy after a transgender competitor who won a women’s race category was criticized after questioning why no one joined them on the podium.

SiriusXM host Megyn Kelly led the backlash after Lesley Mumford, a 46-year-old who transitioned in 2014, won the 2023 Desert Gravel Co2Ut (Colorado to Utah) race in her 40-49. Mumford, a former sheriff’s deputy, posted a photo of herself on Instagram standing alone on stage with the caption, “I have no idea why so many people had to run from the stages, but they did.”

Killips went on to win the women’s category of the Tour of the Gila event in New Mexico

Austin Killips pictured on the podium after the women’s elite race of the ‘Kasteelcross’ cyclocross cycling event, race 7/8 in the ‘Exact Cross’ competition, Saturday 21 January 2023 in Zonnebeke, Belgium

Experts, researchers, and current and former athletes have argued that even after treatment, trans women maintain a physical advantage over their female counterparts.

The issue came to international attention in 2022 when swimmer Lia Thomas became NCAA Women’s Champion after only moderate success as a man.

Tommy Lundberg, a lecturer in physiology at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute and a leading researcher in the field, previously told DailyMail.com: “The most important thing is whether or not you have benefited from male development and male puberty and if you have, you gets benefits that you can’t undo later.’

Lundberg’s landmark 2021 study with Emma Hilton, a developmental biologist at the University of Manchester in the UK, found that men typically have a 10-50 per cent performance advantage over women.

After a trans woman undergoes testosterone suppression for 12 months, the loss of “lean body mass, muscle mass and strength is typically about 5%,” according to the paper.

“The muscle benefit of transgender women is only minimally reduced when testosterone is suppressed,” the study said.