BMX freestyler looks to make history
Chelsea Wolfe just wants to compete. She is a BMX freestyle rider, and she and her other female riders have been excluded from the sport’s biggest events. When they are allowed to compete, they get less prize money. Yes, still. Wolfe is also transgender, and not everyone in her sport has been welcoming.
Which is what makes the Tokyo Games such a big deal.
BMX freestyle is making its Olympics debut, putting the women on equal footing with male riders. Should Wolfe make the U.S. team – she’s ranked third and the top two women go – she would be one of, if not the first, openly trans athletes to compete at the Olympics.
“Just like any kid who does a sport, they dream of doing it professionally and having just a world of opportunities to progress in life in any avenue that they choose to go. But I – almost as soon as those feelings of desire of having a professional career developed, they were instantly shot down by my own thoughts of, ‘Yeah, but nobody’s ever going to accept you as a trans woman athlete,’ ” said Wolfe, the guest on the fifth episode of USA TODAY’s “Changing the Game” podcast.
“That was really crushing to try to accept,” she said. “And that’s a big motivator on the difficult days when I’m on the receiving end of a lot of hate or facing a really just difficult thing to overcome. I remind myself that, even though I am doing this for the same reasons as anyone else does, of wanting to be a professional athlete, I’m also doing this because I want to be the person that I needed to see when I was younger.
“Back then, it would have helped me immensely to feel worth and value in just who I was as a person and not feel like I needed to hide from the world.”
Wolfe initially raced BMX. But she eventually gravitated to freestyle, which involves doing tricks on a bike. (Seen someone come to a stop and lean their bike forward so their back wheel lifts in the air? Or flips their body around their handlebars? Similar to that.)
Wolfe does what’s called park riding: She gets a minute on a course with a variety of obstacles and can do whatever tricks she wants.
“Whether you do tricks that are more known for how well they’re executed or just the difficulty of doing the trick, period, is all up to the rider. So it’s a very individualistic thing,” Wolfe said. “And being on the course by yourself, it just really lets you express however you want to do your riding.”
Wolfe had already transitioned when she began competing as an amateur, in 2014. When she heard BMX freestyle had been added to the Olympic program for Tokyo, she knew she wanted to try to make the team.
That was easier said than done. Many sports are hostile to trans athletes, either establishing barriers to competing or not establishing the framework through which they can compete. Between the lack of information on what the requirements were for trans athletes, providing the necessary medical records and legal documentation, and the pushback, it was two years before Wolfe could apply for a license from the International Cycling Union.
“It’s kind of amazing to me when I talk to other athletes that seem to not have read the rulebooks at all. Because as a trans athlete, I have to be so wellversed in those that I have the applicable parts memorized,” she said. “It’s a huge barrier to entry that other athletes don’t have. Other athletes, all you have to do is apply for your license, go to the events and start competing.”
While there are competitors and riders who have been supportive, Wolfe said she’s also been subject to transphobia, particularly since she began competing internationally. Most of that comes in the form of online harassment.
There are times Wolfe wonders if it’s worth it, being subject to hate and ignorance simply because of who she is. But this is who she is, and there are so many people who need to see that.
“I’ve got plenty of people who support what I’m doing,” she said. “And I’m doing what I’m doing because I know that it’s right.”