Chelsea Wolfe, your everyday trans autistic BMX Olympian

Chelsea Wolfe is a BMX freestyle rider and the first trans athlete to represent Team USA at the Olympics. She talks with Lauren about getting diagnosed with autism as a transgender woman, how autism helped her become a world-class athlete, and why autistic friends are the best kind of friends.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Pushkin. If there's one thing most people don't know about me,
it's that I'm an Olympics obsessive. I just love the
agony and ecstasy and all the drama that comes with
the world's biggest sporting event. Yes, the Olympics are problematic

(00:36):
in lots of ways, but I'm here for the athlete stories,
from the anonymous triple jumpers high stepping to glory to
the megawatt figure skidding stars taking colossal diggers on the ice.
My Olympics obsession was how I found out about Chelsea Wolf.
Chelsea is a professional BMX freestyle writer who is an

(00:57):
alternate to represent Team USA at the Tokyo twenty twenty
Summer Games. She is also trans and autistic, a very
unique combination in the bro heavy world of action sports.
And after I watched a bunch of videos of her
flipping and spinning and just generally shredding while in short shorts,

(01:20):
I knew I had to chat with her. Give me
a brief bio, like give me the Nickel tour of
Chelsea Wolf, Like have you always been a BMX racer?
And you know and freestylists, Like where'd you get your start? Yeah?

(01:41):
Pretty much my entire life, I've been on bikes. I
want to say that I probably learned riding a bike
on just like the street when I was around three
or four something like that. And then when I was six,
just before my seventh birthday, my family got into BMX
racing and I did that for most of my life

(02:02):
up until I think I was about twenty one when
I kind of started to burn out of racing just
a little bit. But I had started with BMX Freestyle
when I was fifteen, and then that was a big
part of why I kind of got tired of racing,
as I was just having so much more fun with freestyle,
and I've been doing freestyle consistently since then. Pretty much

(02:24):
my entire life has been on bikes and competing in
one way or another, whether it was BMX racing, mountain
bike racing, fixed gears, or BMX free style. That's kind
of like a big constant that has been there for me.
Where did you grow up South Florida in the West
bomb Beach area. So my local race track that I

(02:44):
would go to is called Oak Hilly Dmax is still
a great track to this day. But yeah, most of
my childhood was spent there probably, so tell me, like, like,
what was little Chelsea like as a kid. So, I've
always been involved in sports, and I mean my mom

(03:05):
told me that I was like fairly competitive, but I
think I more really enjoyed participating in things and trying
to do the best that I could do. Always been
quite the outcast and the weirdo. And that's one thing
that's a constant that really helped me feel like, Okay, yes,

(03:27):
I'm definitely autistic. It's just like all the way back
to when I was just a little kid. My earliest
memory is just feeling kind of different than the other
kids and being kind of like the weird one in
the group if I did have a friends group, So
I wouldn't say a ton has changed really and still
a weirdo and I still ride bikes. What is it

(03:50):
about bikes for you that is like that is like
your love and your passion. I don't even know. It's like,
I mean, with starting at such a young age, it's
like that consistency of it's the same thing I've been
doing my whole life is like so comforting and nice,
but also there's something so fascinating and beautiful about the

(04:10):
bicycle and how it's just a simple but also complex
piece of machinery that can be fine tuned to just
create beautiful music of riding basically, and just the different
styles of bikes and construction. They're just they're very fascinating.
And yeah, probably one of my longtime special interests is

(04:35):
just bikes and bike knowledge. I worked as a mechanic
for like nine years, and there's just so many things
to learn about such a simple thing. But then socially
as well, like the freedom that bicycles provide of just
freedom of motion and their involvement in various liberation movements
throughout history. Bicycles are a very special thing to me.

(04:59):
I feel you like I'm smiling the whole way through
as you're talking, because I feel the same way. I mean,
you know, I was never indoors as a kid. I
was always out riding my bike. I remember, like, I
wouldn't ride a girl's bike. I insisted that my parents
get me a BMX bike. Like, do not get me wrong,

(05:21):
I was not like riding BMX, but that's what I wanted,
Like that's what the boys had, and so that's the
bike that I wanted. But then at a silent auction
at my elementary school, I won a Horror BMX bike.
It was like the top prize and it was incredible.
It was so much fun. I loved it, and I

(05:42):
love the idea still that like I can't fix my car,
but I can fix my bike, you know. Speaking of
getting into bikes and childhood, though, my story with first
getting into riding bikes is when I was first learning
how to ride, I was obviously on training wheels and
my mom was walking behind me and holding the seat

(06:03):
as I peddled. One time, I get to the end
of the street and thinking that she was right there
holding the seat the whole time, and she had let
go and she was back at the starting point. So
I had just learned to ride a bicycle and I
didn't even know it. So then the next day I
was so excited that I got to go ride my
two wheel or bicycle without training wheels with all the

(06:25):
big kids. So I'm riding up and down the sidewalk
in front of my house and at one point I
got squirrely, just kind of lost control, tried to sieve it,
ended up chasing it off the side of the sidewalk
and crashed into the rear quarter panel of my parents' Jeep.
At the time, it was a pretty new Jeep too,
so it was like one of the first scratches that

(06:46):
I put on it. And fast forward to today that
is the Jeep that I still drive as my daily driver,
and that scratch is still there. I had a Jeep,
is a Wrangler? It is? Yeah, I had a Wrangler. Also,
I was my first car that was not like my

(07:06):
parents piece of shit car, extra car, you know. Um
And if that, if that wasn't an indication that I
was gay, I don't know what was. Um. By riding
with some friends recently and between the three of us,
one of them was driving a Subaru hatch Back, the
other one was driving a Volkswagen Golf, and then I

(07:29):
was driving a Jeep Wrangler, I'm like, well, we sure
are a crew homos, aren't we. Amazingly? Amazingly, Chelsea, I
have had all of those cars. You're just not even
getting the essential gay car, Like you have to drive
one of those three, It's true, And I didn't even try.
I I'd like, I'd drive a Subaru impressive right now

(07:52):
with a hatchback. Yeah, Like you don't even set out
to do it. It's like the gay life chooses you. True,
It's true, It's true. Um So, so you mentioned, you know,
feeling like sort of an outcast and a weirdo, and
I wonder like what school was like for you know,
when you were a kid. Yeah, pretty much just that,
always like trying to fit in but feeling like there

(08:15):
was some kind of disconnect in not being able to
understand or explain why in conversation, I never knew the
right thing to say. I would try to contribute and
say something and everyone would be like, that's weird. And
that kind of still is the case in you know,
certain pockets of interacting with people to this day. Is

(08:38):
just always having that kind of like lack of connection
there that you know, it's you can't even put your
finger on exactly what it is like why you feel it,
but it's there for sure. Did that change when you
entered the bike sphere? Like did it change when you
went to the park. Did it change when you started

(09:00):
doing races? Like did you find community there? No, it
was kind of the same thing. I had some great
friends with riding bikes at all, but it was the
exact same dislike spelt like, there was this disconnect and
even though we shared the passion for BMX racing, I
was still kind of the oddball of the bunch that

(09:21):
was very strange outside of our shared passion for bikes. Right,
is there a way that you can break down like
how much of this sort of not fitting in was
like gender stuff and how much of it was like neurodivergence,
like or was it all just like in one big
supie pile? And then that's the thing is like it
all kind of is just one big stupie pile because

(09:43):
all of those elements are what make us who we are.
And it's like, well, who's to say that the reason
I didn't feel a connection with one person is for
this reason or that reason when there's like so many
different aspects about me that make me kind of an oddball? Right? Right? Right?
Did you get a formal diagnosis autism diagnosis or did

(10:04):
you sort of self identify self diagnos and whichever one,
when did that happen for you? I kind of always
knew there was something. My older brother was diagnosed as
autistic at a very young age. Very typical. You know,
the boy gets diagnosed and the girl is ignored. So

(10:26):
it wasn't until a couple of years ago actually that,
like you said, when the pandemic started, all of those
supports kind of fell apart and I had to start
spending time with myself that I started to really have
to figure out, like what is it that makes me tick?
How do I learn how to function again without the
supports that I used to have. So it was during

(10:50):
the year of twenty twenty. I can't remember exactly when
in that year, but that was when I sought out
and bought a diagnosis for being autistic. But I went
my entire life just thinking that there was something wrong
with me, rather than realizing like, oh, this, this particular
thing about me is because of the autism. Like I

(11:11):
just thought it was like a character flaw. That's interesting
that you had a sibling who was on the spectrum
and was diagnosed, And I mean, were there similarities between
you where you were like, oh, he has that. I'm
a little bit like that. Absolutely, And that's the thing
that blows my mind that I don't understand how I

(11:33):
wasn't diagnosed sooner. Is like almost all of the things
that got him his diagnosis, like the various traits that
were noticed and picked up on by the adults. I
had the same thing, but instead of being like, oh, wow,
like you might be autistic too, let's take you to
a professional and figure this out, it was like why
are you doing that thing? And I would get in

(11:53):
trouble for it and be criticized. It's like what And
it's really funny too, with like, my experience is very
similar to other transformed people's experiences. At the time, my
parents wouldn't have had any reason to suspect that I
wasn't a boy just like my older brother. And yet
my experiences even in that time is more closely aligned

(12:16):
with experiences of them people and women who are autistic
being overlooked and having our needs neglected because the way
that they are perceived. But did people think like, oh,
Chelsea's just like copying. Yes, I think that was probably
a big part of it is they just figure like, Okay,
she just wants to be like her big brother, rather

(12:39):
than like, we just had very similar traits because we
were both autistic and yeah, just a lot of those things.
Like my older brother, one of the things that got
him some extra care and attention was that when he
was stressed, he would pull his hair out and meanwhile,
I got in trouble for fidgeting with my hair. And

(13:01):
one of the ways I tried to mask this and
treat it myself since the adults in my life weren't
going to is I would wear beanies all day every day.
And as you can see, I still do that because
hair touching my face, I will rip it out. But
when I did those things, I got in trouble for it.
When Wilder brother did those things, he got taken to

(13:21):
a psychiatrist see what was causing it. And I don't
understand why, like that treatment was so different. And it's
funny too, because within gender discourse, people say like, oh,
if you're trands like you're socialized as your gender that
you're assigned at birth, It's like not quite, Like it's
a lot more complicated than that, because the socialization that

(13:42):
happens to you, not only will you internalize it differently
depending on who you are and what you are on
the inside, but people will treat you differently even if
they don't know that you're a girl, for example. So
basically Chelsea was already being treated like the girl she

(14:04):
would become or that she was inside when it came
to her autism, which is wild to think about. Jenner
is weird, y'all. Chelsea didn't get diagnosed with autism until
twenty twenty, like me. Also, like me, Chelsea's an athlete.
We're basically twins. Just kidding. I'm not an athlete anymore,

(14:25):
though I do have aging athlete body. So you and
I got to diagnosis around about the same time, and
it seems like that's really common too, with the pandemic
going on. Sorry to cut you off. There's like people
who were coming into such an awareness of themselves with
being diagnosed with like Nerdi virgent traits or coming out

(14:47):
as trans or queer, just changing their presentation. Like it
was really such a good break for everyone to kind
of get get to know themselves better. How is your
process of getting diagnosed? Was it challenging or was it?
Was it easy for you? Yeah, it was pretty tricky.
I had been asking my therapists for quite a while

(15:11):
to refer me to someone to be diagnosed or just
screened for autism, and it took a long time to
finally start to figure out like what medical professional would
even make that assessment, who to make an appointment with,
and then actually getting that appointment and being taken seriously.

(15:32):
Once I finally got the appointment, it was kind of
they asked me a bunch of questions, had me do
a bunch of mental exercises, and I'm assuming, watched how
I completed those things, and then at the end they
were like, congratulations, you have the autisms. And I was like,
oh cool, I knew that already. It's just but thank
you for validating this. So if I ever need accommodations

(15:52):
and supports, and you know, there's the issue of places
that require a professional diagnosis for these things to access
our support needs, I have that paperwork to be like, look,
I am official. The doctors said that I am officially autistic,
like it's unless. It reminds me a lot of like
the way that people treat being trans as like oh,

(16:14):
you have to be like diagnosed with gender identity disorder
or dysphoria or something like that, Like it's it's up
to a doctor usually assist doctor to say like, yep,
you have the trans like no, like your trans and
then like a doctor confirming that or not, Like it's
the same thing with autism is like you're autistic whether
or not the doctor says you are like even though

(16:37):
you knew it, though you still felt the need to
get a diagnosis, Like you still felt the need to
get the word, get the official word, get a piece
of paper, Like if you were very clear on who
you were, why did you need that? I mean a
big part of it was just finding like the ability
to access support needs when a professional diagnosis is required

(16:59):
if somebody does try to deny the legitimacy of my
claims that I'm autistic, as if a doctor could you
know no better than I would. But the other thing
is kind of just like the validation of like you know,
there's obviously that self doubt there. It's like what if
I'm just making this all up? Like what if you know,
just being gasolate my entire life for being autistic and

(17:22):
just being you know, treated like that it was something
I was doing wrong rather than that I was actually autistic.
Kind of like led me to like low key believe like, Okay,
maybe it's it is. Maybe maybe I'm the drama right right?
I feel you? I mean, that was what you know,
Like I I think that in the absence of appropriate

(17:45):
and accessible mental healthcare, a self diagnosis, a self identification
seems totally reasonable and valid, but for me, and probably
because I'm older, I felt like this is not like
it's it's not really going to work for me because
I would always be left with questions. And even after

(18:09):
I got the diagnosis, I still had like I still
felt like like I had fraud syndrome, you know what
I mean. Yeah, Like I still felt like, uh, I'm
just just get over it, like you're fine, like you're not,
you know. And I hated feeling like that because you know,
if somebody diagnosed you with like with something else, I mean,

(18:33):
you wouldn't be like, oh but I might be faking
it even though they said I wasn't, you know. I
think we possibly get hit with that extra hard to
being late diagnosed autistic people because we kind of go
our whole lives being told that like our support needs
and our autistic traits are personal failing something that we're

(18:54):
doing wrong, and then we internalize that even after we're
diagnosed and it feels like I can push through this
if I really tried, and our brains are like kind
of conceptualizing that as like I'm making this, I don't
really have this support need on making it up because
that's what we have been marinewashed and told to believe

(19:14):
our entire lives. So it's really hard to get over
and start to be able to reflect on like what
are my needs and I'm going to respect those needs.
I don't care what somebody else says or even what
my anxiety tells me. Right right, did you feel like,
sort of metaphorically you're able to like let your hair

(19:36):
down after your diagnosis, you were able to like like
step more fully into yourself. I definitely like I was
terrified to stem freely in public before, whereas now like
I'll I don't care. I'll be in the middle of
a crowded skate park and like essentially overload big time,
especially like here in California, most of the sessions are

(19:58):
mixed with skateboards, and skateboards are so much louder than bikes,
Oh my gosh, And it's just so much noise, so
many people, so many things going on, and like, I'll,
you know, straight up like over to where I have
my bag and just curl up in a ball with
my fidget toy and stim until I calm down right there,
like I don't care. Like maybe people were like, oh, look,

(20:19):
it's that weird. Girl, but like yeah, cool, like right right,
I'm also a weird girl who's like, you know, a
champion cyclist, so you can eat it. Yeah, It's like
it's working for me, Like I'm getting paid to ride
here today, right, like this is your hobby, this is

(20:39):
my job. So yeah, yeah, yeah that definitely helps me
to feel more comfortable just being myself and stimming freely.
And if somebody does want to like come up to
me and be like, hey, you're weird. Why are you
doing that, it's like pulling an autistic girl, you weirdo?
Like right right? Yeah, yeah. I have to say like
there was this pendulum swing for me where I felt like,

(21:04):
am I becoming more autistic? Like after the diagnosis? Yes?
And that's something too that I think people will actually
like accused of, like oh, this is why you're taking it,
because like you've been acting more artistics since you're diagnosis,
and like it feels like that, but it's like it's
just just like you said, like your hair down, just
like so freeing to finally understand and you're able to

(21:28):
embrace yourself and not be like why am I doing
this thing? Like what's wrong with me? This is a
bad habit. This is a character flaw, but like I
need to do this thing. This is good for me.
It does kind of seem like all of those traits
come out of nowhere, and it's very doesn't like it
does not help the imposter syndrome at all. Right, Right,

(21:49):
I'm so glad to hear you say that, because you
know I've been going through it. Like I'm like I'm
melting down more like I have a lot of meltdown,
so I'm like a lot, Like it feels worse and
like this shouldn't be the case because I'm you know,
I should be I should be able to manage this
better and all this stuff. But I have found myself

(22:10):
being like what is going on here? Like why do
I feel like it's more autistic? But really what it
is is it's like being tired of masking or hiding
or whatever. And I imagine that there were so many
parallels also for you in your gender journey, because it's
like I don't want to live this way anymore. But

(22:32):
you're you, but you have conflict about it, and you
have these sort of inner demons and you have this
voice is telling you you're wrong, and all of this
stuff and blah blah blah blah blah. And it's like
our brains are so boring. Yeah, they like they'll try
to believe, like our brains will try to believe literally
any other explanation, especially with you know, with being trans,

(22:54):
Like when I first came to the realization that I
was trans and started to come out like this was
before public acceptance was where it's at today, Like we're
talking a little bit of like about a decade and
a half ago, Like, yeah, public knowledge wasn't there, Like
being trans was like that was a bad word, Like
you did not want to be that, so of course,
like my brain tried to think of like any other

(23:15):
possible explanation. And even with being autistic, like I've had
the reaction when I tell people that I'm autistic of
like oh, I'm so sorry, like the poor thing. It's like, no,
this is great. I love this, Like this is just
who I am and I value that. But it's kind
of like a similar thing of like autism and disability
are just seen as like a bad word and a

(23:35):
negative thing when there are things to be celebrated and
embraced because that is just part of who we are. Yeah,
it's d brains will try to like latch onto other
explanations to shy away from that just because of how
we're conditioned. And it's funny because, like we were talking
about before, is nothing changed. You just understand it now.
But like even though like you like just became aware

(23:58):
of being autistic or you were just diagnosed as autistic,
or like you just came out as trans, like you
were trans or autistic or whatever, your entire life up
to that point, nothing concrete. It's changing. It's just you
understand yourself better now. And I know that was a
big response with when I came out as trans, people
thinking that like I was going to change as a

(24:20):
person like somehow because I came out. It's like no,
I mean I still like BMX and RC cars and
I wear cut off jean shorts and T shirts. It's
just I'm a girl now. Like thee your George game
is really on point. I will say that I wonder
about like you're in the action sports biz, like it's

(24:45):
always been seen at least from the outside, is like way, Broy,
is it harder to be like autistic or trans or
like does nobody even care? Is it like a chill crew,
like there are people like whatever, you just like to
ride bikes, and I'm here for that. So thankfully, I
would say maybe a majority of people that are just

(25:08):
like I don't care like you like bikes. I like
bikes cool, But there is definitely the browy aspect of it.
I've been cool guide by more people and more times
than I can count. And whether that was because like
they didn't like that I was trans, or we just
imvibe because I'm autistic, whatever the reason is, that can
definitely be that like kind of perception that it's a

(25:32):
very browy culture unfortunately seems to hold true when like
for me, bmax and action sports should be the opposite.
Is like we're the outcasts of the outcast, like especially
like bmax is like, you know, skateboarding is what you
do if you couldn't make the football team, and VMX
is what you would do if you couldn't skateboard. So
it's like we're the like super weirdos. So the fact

(25:54):
that like people want to try to be like exclusionary
and browy in that community, it's like, no, like we
embrace the weirdness here. That's what we do. Yeah yeah, yeah,
well that's good. I mean, that's it's it's good to
hear at least that, like people are just like you
can ride. That's cool. Have you come across many other

(26:18):
autistic athletes, particularly professional athletes that I know of, But like, also,
it's strange how easily we can tell if somebody else
is autistic by the connection that we can feel with someone,
Like I won't say that, like, I can't tell for sure,
like I've met you know, they're autistic athletes, But I

(26:42):
don't really like know how many, just because I'm sure
there are people that, like I just didn't talk to,
or their autism like presents differently than my own, or
they're just not open about it, whatever it is. But
I feel like there's probably a fair amount of people
who are ner divergent in some way in action sports,
especially professionally, because a big part of what made me

(27:07):
kind of need to do BMX as a career and
gave me the ability to do BMX as a career
is being autistic. I'm not put out for the nine
to five thing. I hit burnout way too much. I
have way too many needs for most jobs to satisfy
without firing me. Whereas being a pro athlete like I
set my own schedule, I set my own sensory needs,

(27:29):
like I can kind of accommodate for those things and
still perform my role as an athlete. Also, the kind
of obsession with doing things repetitively and finding just so
much joy out of doing the same thing over and
over and over until it's perfect. That's kind of what
you need to do to train and for being an athlete,
and where other people might get burnt out on having

(27:51):
to do the same trick over and over and over,
Like I love that. So in a way, like it
kind of like has helped me to become a professional
athlete because of my just obsession with riding. That makes
total sense to me, because you know, because from what
I have gathered from friends who are professional athletes, like

(28:12):
the self indulgence, and I mean that in a positive
way that you need to have if you're an individual
sport athlete one hundred percent focused on yourself and your
training and your nutrition and your equipment and you're this
and you're that, it makes sense like you're autistic. You
can hyper focus on this thing and you don't there

(28:34):
are no outside distractions. You know, It's really cool and
I bet you that there are a lot of undiagnosed
statistic athletes that would not present in this sort of
classical way, but their sport is able to sort of
mask it because there's these overlapping traits. It's funny. I
was just talking about that in my last meeting that

(28:57):
I was in today. Is how like athletics can kind
of be an outlet for your nerd divergence to kind
of manifest in a socially acceptable way, and it just
helps you blend in for so long, and then like
sometimes you'll get to a point where like it's just
that thing doesn't work anymore. Like whatever it was that

(29:19):
was like allowing you to channel that difference through your sport,
for some reason, it stops working and you have to
like face like okay, like I am different, Like oh,
you were speaking my language right now. I mean when
I had to stop playing sports, like I mean, they

(29:40):
were such a huge part of my life, and then
like you know, when you finish college and then it's
the end of the road, you know, because I wasn't
going to make it a career. I did not realize
the impact that that had on me in the second
half of my life to not have that thing that
was completely focusing that also made you, that allowed you
to blend in my obsession with the sport and knowing

(30:04):
everything about it and knowing all about the equipment and
all of that stuff. It never found a home for that,
you know, it never found at home. I mean sometimes
I just feel the need to jog around the block.
I'm like, I just need to get get it out,
but I don't have that outlet. Well. And even like
the repetitive motion of running or endurance cycling for example,

(30:24):
like that can be a form of stimming, and it
is just moving your body and a repetitive motion exercising
is that is kind of like a socially acceptable form
of stimming, so like kind of it helps masks, but
also it can be what causes somebody to excel at
sports because for them, that's not like, oh man, I'm
suffering through this really long bike ride. It's like, oh

(30:46):
my god, I just got stim for eight hours straight
and nobody criticized me. I feel you, Yeah, I mean
that's totally so. You know, we had a garage at
the back of our house and I would throw the
little cross ball pop pop Pop Pop over and over
and over again. And my stick skills were tight. I
mean they were really really good. I had amazing six skills.
Very bad temper, but amazing stick skills. Like it was

(31:09):
because I was able to be out there for hours
and not get bored and and like constantly doing tricks
like we call wallball, constantly doing things like that. It's
gorgeous that you've been able to make this your job.
Being an athlete and be autistic does not comport with

(31:31):
a lot of people's understanding of autism. And I bet
if it was looked into more, people would see that
there's a huge crossover. Oh yeah, because I mean there's
there's obviously the century issues that can make it tricky.
There is the coordination issues that can make it tricky,
but like, there are so many aspects of autism that
lend itself really well to being an athlete. And I'm actually,

(31:54):
I'm really enjoying this conversation because I've i think, only
been interviewed a handful of other times about being an
autistic athlete, and almost all of the interviews are geared
more towards like, oh wow, this must be really hard.
Let's talk about things you've had to overcome. I'm like, no, no,
ask me about the things that I think are benefits
of being an autistic athlete, because there's a lot more

(32:15):
at bath. But it's just like the perception and it's like, oh, wow,
you're struggling with this thing. It's like, no, it's this
beautiful thing that I think benefits me, right, right, exactly exactly.
I mean the woman who diagnosed me was like really
into talking about superpowers, like autistic superpowers. I think she
was an autistic supremacist to be honest, or autistic exceptionalist,

(32:38):
because she was just like basically like we're better than everybody,
which I understand because like as a gay person, I
think gay people are better and probably like as a
trans person or like trans people are better, like which
is probably one accurate all of those things, you know.
And so her thing was like superpowers, and it's like, Okay,

(33:00):
I'm not willing to go that far, but I definitely
agree that there are things that make you like, I'm
an obsessive talker. That could be a communication deficit or
it could be great because that actually is my job, yes, exactly,
And the same thing you're mentioning with lacrosse and like
doing the wallball thing is like, I'm sure there were
kids that have to kind of be like pushed by

(33:22):
their coaches to be like, all right, go do your drills,
like do the same thing over and over, and they're like, yeah,
I'm so bored. I want to do something exciting. And
for you, it's like that's your enrichment, Like you're loving that.
So it's like that is an advantage of being autistic?
Is that like the kind of froggy, boring aspect of
repetition that comes with being good at anything? We thrive

(33:45):
in that we love it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I feel
like we have kept you so much longer than we anticipate.
But this has been such a lovely chat and I'm
so grateful for your time. And I have one last
question for you. I want to know will you be
my autistic friend? I would love to be your autistic friend. Yes, yes,

(34:08):
I'm in DIF friends the best friends like this. You
know how there's always like growing up, there's that just disconnect,
like you don't understand why you don't connect with your peers,
but you know that you don't, and you just feel
like an outcast. I'll just DIF friends of the opposite.
It's like you don't understand why you have that connection,
but you just fit in. It works so well. So yeah,

(34:31):
just friends are the best, fantastic. So if I ever,
if I ever come out to San Diego, will you
will you teach me something on the on the BMX bikes,
I can teach e BMX bikes or cs. We can
go off roading like all the things. I mean, you
can join my cults. I don't. I don't know how
I'll fit on such a tiny and uncomfortable bicycle. I

(34:53):
mean it literally is like a bike for clowns, like
like at this like as a giant, Like I don't
know how you guys fit on them. I realize you
never sit on the seats. I get it. But also
like they're so tiny, I feel a little bit. It's
funny because like whenever people take it way seriously, I

(35:13):
like kind of giggle because it's like a guy, buddy, dude,
like we are riding bikes that are appropriately sized for
a twelve year old. How seriously are you going to
take yourself right now? It's true, It's true. It's so true.
It's so true. I mean, you're right, it's a toy,

(35:33):
like we are playing with toys and like, yes there's
like competitions, yes we're making careers out of it, but
at the end of the day, like we are playing
with toys, and like, that's what I love the most
about BMAX and just enjoying things that, like, in the
grand scheme of things, they're not productive. And for me,
that's the beauty of BMX and RC cars and skateboarding

(35:55):
or anything that you're into is just engaging in it
because it makes you happy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Well this
has been a joy and a pleasure at Chelsea, thank
you so much, Thank you so much. Thanks for taking
the time to talk to me. It's been a great conversation.
Chelsea Wolf is a neurospicy professional BMX freestyle writer who

(36:18):
competes for the US national team. You can find her
on Instagram at Chelsea Wolf BMX. That's Wolf with any
This episode was produced by David Jah and edited by
Sophie Crane, mix engineering by Jake Gorski. Thanks to you
friend for listening.