Transgender male swimmer Iszac Henig has admitted his transition has made him a statistically worse swimmer, but he has no regrets about the transition and is “living better” as a result.
Henig, 21, has started swimming for Yale’s men’s team after becoming a member of the women’s team as an All-American the previous year.
In a comment published on Thursday, Henig notes that his times are “about the same” as last season when he swam with women, but that he finished 79th out of 83 at a November meeting.
Sports site Outkick noted that one left-armless swimmer and three others specialize in different swimming styles.
It’s a big drop in terms of competition, as Henig was such a respected swimmer that she competed in the 2016 Olympic Trials and was named one of the top 100 swimmers in the country.
Transgender male swimmer Iszac Henig has admitted his transition has made him a statistically worse swimmer, but he has no regrets about the transition and is “living better” as a result
He wrote: “I haven’t been the slowest guy at any of my events, but I’m not as successful at sport as I am on the women’s team.”
Writing for the New York Times, Henig, who along with Penn’s Lia Thomas has stirred controversy and backlash against transgender athletes, says he’s living his best life.
He talks about how he used swimming in high school — where he rated highly and broke records — as a way to see the worth in himself while feeling like he was “completely out of touch with myself.” ‘ and to contribute to a team.
“I felt most valued and closest to the real me when I was swimming,” he wrote, feeling joy about throwing himself into the Yale swim team when Henig arrived at the Connecticut Ivy League institution.
“I could define myself by what I could do beyond the norm, not by how well I fit in. I didn’t have to ask myself who I am like I did in school or in the social setting,” he added.
Henig said he initially continued to enjoy life as a swimmer at Yale after becoming the top scorer for the women’s swim team as a sophomore.
At the time, however, he described his “mere existence” as “tiring” and said he felt uncomfortable in the dressing room.
Henig, 21, has started swimming for Yale’s men’s team after becoming a member of the women’s team as an All-American the previous year
In a comment published on Thursday, Henig notes that his times are “about the same” as last season when he swam with women, but that he finished 79th out of 83 at a November meeting
Although he had already admitted his attraction to women and assumed it caused confusion, it soon became even greater.
“I thought my discomfort stemmed from worrying that my sexuality was making others uncomfortable,” he writes. “I hadn’t considered that the real reason I felt so bad was because I felt like I was in the wrong dressing room.”
He said things got worse during the pandemic when he was sent home from school and the pools were closed, leaving him without the escape through swimming that so often induced.
Henig chose to do a gap year “to focus on improving my mental health and as an added benefit, to maintain my college credits for eligibility.”
As he tried to cling to being a woman, he says the feelings only got worse and he ended up trying therapy.
Henig wrote: “I wasn’t the slowest guy at any of my events, but I’m not as successful in sports as I am in the women’s team.”
Henig talks about swimming in high school — where he rated highly and broke records — as a way to see the value in himself while feeling like he’d “completely lost touch with myself,” and to contribute to a team
“I delved deeper into queerness and explored the balance of masculinity and femininity, particularly with the presentation in clothes,” Henig wrote. “It was through this that I discovered binders, compression garments as a base layer used to create a more traditional masculine appearance of the chest.”
Henig claims to have been “euphoric” in putting together this performance, which led to him finally questioning his identity as a woman.
Eventually, this led to him changing his name and pronouns and having to undergo a double mastectomy in early 2021. The final decision when he returned to Yale was what to do with the swim team.
He had the option to choose the men’s or the women’s team and initially chose the women’s team. He said he felt like he had made a commitment, but eventually it became impossible to navigate.
After what Henig calls “the best swim season of my life,” which included an Ivy League championship and a top-five finish at the NCAA championships, he finally decided to join the men’s team.
Henig claims to have been “euphoric” in putting together this performance, which led to him finally questioning his identity as a woman
He had the option to choose the men’s or the women’s team and initially chose the women’s team. He said he felt like he had made a commitment, but eventually it became impossible to navigate. A year later he joined the men’s team
In addition to finishing 79th in November against Columbia, he also finished 10th of 11 and 11th of 12 in two previous event days and was the slowest of all in a third.
But that’s not really what Henig is about. “I’m trying to connect with my teammates in new ways, cheering out loud, focusing more on the excitement of the sport,” Henig wrote. “The competition and the challenge are the best. It’s a different kind of fulfillment. And it’s nice to feel comfortable in the dressing room every day.”
Henig concludes: “The feeling of being congruent with my team opened my eyes even more to how powerful athletic communities can be and how important it is that everyone has the chance to feel this.”
The trans swimmers Lia Thomas and Henig lead to controversy and further questions about their further participation in the sporting competition.
Earlier this year, President Joe BIden proposed changing the definition of “gender” in a federal civil rights statute to include “gender” and “gender identity.”
The amendments to Title IX, the 1972 law that prohibits sex discrimination in schools or other educational programs funded by the federal government, would therefore allow transgender female athletes to compete against biological women in sports.
THE RULES FOR TRANSGENDER ATHLETES AND WHEN THEY CAN COMPETE FOR THE GENDER WILL SWITCH
Lia Thomas began hormone therapy in May 2019 while still competing as a man.
Under the US Swimming Rules, athletes had to have had low testosterone levels for 36 months to compete in the female category.
That meant Thomas couldn’t qualify for the NCAA Championship if they followed US swimming rules – as originally announced.
But the NCAA said it was allowed to compete because they refused to accept the 2021 threshold.
The NCAA committee said, “The subcommittee has determined that the implementation of additional changes at this time could have an unfair and potentially adverse impact on schools and student-athletes intending to compete in the 2022 NCAA women’s swimming championships.”
However, it is unclear what they will do next year.