Sports had a very positive influence on my perception of gender, mostly because I was able to see really strong women who were competing in sports and weren't your typical depictions of femininity.

In ultra running, women beat men a lot of times — the races get longer and the so-called ‘differences in sexes’ are minimized. When you're racing for 20 hours, it's more about who wants it more, nothing else really matters.

There were strong women who beat me before I transitioned, and continued to beat me afterwards.

When I transitioned, ultra running made things a lot easier, because there are no gendered starts, and we all start together. The super ultra endurance community is also very accepting because there's not a lot of prize money, and it's mostly just people who do it as a hobby. That made it a lot easier for when I transitioned, to feel like I could stay in sports.

I didn't have to change competitions because of my gender – the only thing that changed was the gender marker in my results sheet.

I could really be very authentic in my gender expression and just my gender identity. It wasn't something that I worried about.

There aren’t enough trans athletes for us to be thought of as ‘dominating’

One of the factors that is preventing sports from being a safe space is how people take their preconceived notions and apply them as fact. A lot of coaches and athletes think of their transphobic thoughts or narratives as facts. They believe that their fears are entirely founded on truth.

But if what they were worried about was really true, there would be a different conversation happening, and maybe we could actually talk about it. But the reality of the situation is that none of these things that are fear-mongered, are actually happening.

You have a handful of trans athletes in general – maybe a couple dozen trans athletes across every sport across the whole world, who are trying to compete at the International elite professional level. There's not enough of us to be doing so 'dominanting' that we're making an impact on the sport beyond just being another athlete who's there.

That's something that I always try to get across to people, that trans athletes are just athletes. They just happen to be trans and they're gonna win races, they're gonna lose races, they're going to be injured, they're going to have personal life issues. They have to train and go all through the same difficulties and highs that normal athletes will.

If trans athletes win it’s because they deserve to, just like everyone else

For sports to become more accepting, people have to be ready for athletes who don’t fit their idea of who should be in sporting competitions.

You're going to see people who look different than you, think differently than you, and are from different backgrounds. They're going to do well, they're going to succeed, they're going to win races, and they're going to win sponsorships. But they're also going to have the same difficulties that every other athlete has.

A lot of people see trans athletes winning as a reason for trans athletes not to be there and say, "Oh my gosh, look this trans woman won a race. That means that it's unfair."

But good athletes win races. If a trans athlete wins a race, then they worked really hard for it and they definitely deserved it. And they probably are going to not win a race again anytime soon, because winning races at the professional level is extremely challenging.

You're competing with the best in the world, at their best, at the biggest stages. To be able to come out on top is a huge deal.

I think people just need to be ready for trans athletes to do that, and accepting that when it happens, it's not because they got there through unjust or unfair means. They got there the same way everyone else does.

Swimming hasn’t been progressive, so I quit when I started transitioning

Swimming was my first love. I started when I was five years old and competed through the end of my high school career, before I transitioned.

I was a very successful athlete and competed at the state and junior national championships level. I was recruited to swim Division I in college, but because of my plans to transition, I was super apprehensive about trying to race while transitioning in swimming.

I struggled to express my gender identity, just because of the inherent separation in swimming. It's a very gendered sport where you're wearing very revealing clothing, and hasn’t always been super progressive or accepting. There just weren't a lot of opportunities to express myself, so I made the decision to quit and move away.

With all the things that happened in the NCAA and with the IOC, swimming is really struggling to be a safe place for trans and queer athletes and it's really disheartening to still see that. I'm a coach at an NCAA program, and it's hard to know that some of the athletes that I coach, or that we swim against, aren't accepted by the greater community. I do whatever I can, but I'm only one coach. I can't unfortunately change the environment and perception of everybody. So swimming still has a long way to go.

After quitting swimming, I spent a couple years away from competitions. I did ultra marathons, long distance cycling events, and eventually got into ski-mountaineering. When I was swimming as a kid, I was always jealous of the winter sport athletes, because I was like "It'd be so fun to go skiing or ice skating for your job instead of having to swim."

Now, I ski for my job and I never would’ve anticipated it, but it's been phenomenal. The people that I race against are wonderful and accepting. When the season comes, I couldn't be more excited to see my friends, race against them as hard as possible, and then have beers and hang out afterwards.

I hope trans youth know that a lot of people really do care about them

I've been really very privileged in that my sport has been very accepting of me, from the officials to the other competitors — they have been very welcoming of me. I haven't had to lose opportunities in these waves of attacks against trans athletes, and as awful as it would be to be banned from competition, I’m only one athlete and one career, and I have other options.

While the target of a lot of the media right now is around professional athletes, the true negative impact is on youth and kids who are looking to participate in high school or children's sports. By continually pushing out elite trans athletes through the claim for 'fairness', these sports organizations and competitions just end up really negatively impacting kids, who might not have have role models to look for, or a place where they can feel safe.

I think that finding acceptance at the professional level will allow for more acceptance at the youth level, which I think is the most important thing. We’re seeing a lot of bills at the state level in the US that are preventing kids from just competing in youth recreational soccer and basketball. There's no sponsorship or prize money there, but those are the kids who are going to be really affected, and that legislation is gonna cause a lot of harm.

For kids right now, the most important thing to know is that there are a lot of people out there who do care positively about them, and there are places that want them to be here. As awful as the anti-trans legislation is, it comes from a small group of people who have a lot of power. But it's not the majority's opinion. I think the most important thing is to just look for community with the people who are around you, whether that's directly in your sports team, with your friends at school, or with a greater community online and out in the world.

It’s sad to have such limited spaces but we have to turn to other people who are like us in order to find safety, community, love and care. The legislation is terrible and we have to fight it. But if it's all we talked about, and if it's all we focus on, then there's not a lot of joy. We have to find joy in who we are, celebrate our identity, and find joy in the rest of our lives. Because that's really the only way to get through it – by not focusing only on the negatives.

I hope trans youth can find some solace in that there are a lot of people out there who really care about them.

The mountains were hard before I transitioned, and they're just as hard now

While sports can be very political, with rules and regulations, when you look at the actual competitions, they're very fair.

Whether you're racing in the pool, the track or at the mountains – there's no discrimination there. The track is always going to be the same distance around and your time is always going to be the same. I think that consistency throughout my years of transitioning has always created a sense of safety and comfort and joy.

The mountains were just as big and just as hard before I transitioned, and they're just as big and just as hard after I transitioned. Being able to go there, whenever I want and whenever I can, has always been a place of comfort, where I find a lot of joy in escaping from work, school, or just what's going on in the world.

It's also been great to be able to race in the women's category, to feel accepted in the women's group for skiing. There's moms, business owners, people who only race professionally full-time, and those who balance it with full time jobs, and it's a really wonderful and pretty amazing group of people.

I feel really honored that I get to race with them and get to spend time with them and train with them and that these women care about what I have to say on certain topics and are interested in my opinions.

It feels very welcoming and I'm glad to be able to spend lots of time with them, and really just get to experience racing in a women's group which is something that I've always wanted since I was younger.

I want trans people to be able to feel comfortable in outdoor activities

I started racing in ski mountaineering in college, and it was a great place to re-fall in love with training, the mountains and just being outdoors, as opposed to swimming in a pool for a decade, where you're staring at the bottom of a pool.

I've been doing it for three years now, and it’s my life goal to race professionally at as high of a level that I can achieve on my own. But the thing I care about outside of my own career goals, is to just get more access to these sports.

Ski-mountaineering is a very historically cis-white sport from Europe, that entails a lot of expenses, and is very environmentally restrictive. I think it's the best sport ever, but it's hard to recommend it to people, especially to anyone from an underprivileged background, because the barrier to enter is so high.

Getting more access to those kinds of sports is really important because I think it's a wonderful way to spend time outdoors and in the mountains. It's a great way to just fall in love with exercising and being an active person.

I study exercise physiology in school, and living a healthy active lifestyle is a very important thing to me. I want trans and queer people to be able to feel comfortable in outdoor recreational activities.

Everyone should be able to lead a healthy life and I think that trans and queer people face a lot of barriers in terms of being able to participate.

Being able to have access to gender neutral rooms or private locker rooms can really make an impact on somebody's ability to feel safe in their environment. And if they feel safe then they'll more likely want to participate in it.