Schuyler with Lesley Stahl from 60 Minutes
I watched a 60 Minutes report on Sunday night on Schuyler Bailar, the female to male transgenger swimmer. Maybe you did too. He made headlines over the summer when he joined the men’s swimming team at Harvard after initially being recruited for the women’s team. After taking a year off and coming out to his family, friends, and coach, Bailar planned to live as a man without taking hormones, so he could still compete on the women’s team per NCAA rules. But Harvard told him he’d be welcome on the men’s team, and Bailar had a choice to make.
He chose to be on the men’s team and he’s believed to be the first out trans athlete to compete in an NCAA Division I men’s sport. And the first trans swimmer. In the 60 Minutes interview, Bailar talked about his first season,
He had to make some adjustments, including getting used to wearing the men’s swimsuit with his double-mastectomy scars exposed, as well as not winning the way he had been on the women’s team
“My goal to myself — because it’s not realistic for me to win anything right now, at all — is to try to beat at least one person in every race.“
In his first eight races, he’s achieved that goal all but once. Still he says it’s sometimes hard to look at the women’s scoreboard.
“I know I made the right decision. But I think sometimes I’m like, ‘Oh, I really wish I could — I could compete as a girl. Because I want to win that race.’ It’s fun to win, and it’s something that I worked really hard for. And, you know, I work the same amount. But now I’m working the same amount for 16th place, you know?
It’s the way it is. And it’s also a lot of fun. It has other kinds of glory in it … It’s a glory that, like, fills me inside.”
It’s an amazing story. You can watch the 60 Minutes piece here and you can follow Schuyler on Instagram where he interacts with his fans and the uninformed answering questions about his transition.
A photo posted by Schuyler Bailar (@pinkmantaray) on
