Schuyler Bailar of Harvard set to become NCAA’s first openly transgender swimmer

Switched from being a female to a male swimmer.

By Raif Karerat

WASHINGTON, DC: Schuyler Bailar, 19, is set to become the NCAA’s first openly transgender swimmer.

While Bailar was initially recruited by Harvard as a top female swimmer, he transitioned his gender identity last year and will compete as a member of the university’s men’s team.

Bailar, who grew up in Virginia, was first recruited to attend Harvard by Stephanie Morawski, head coach of the women’s swim team, in 2013. But after battling deep depression and an eating disorder during his senior year of high school, Bailar decided that he needed to take a gap year and seek help, so he deferred the offer to swim in the Ivy League.

Bailar said he spent months in a treatment center in Florida, and during that time came out as transgender.

“That was a difficult time for me, because I was really sick of not being myself, and that was driving me to the ground. At the same time, swimming is a huge passion of mine and leaving that would have been incredibly difficult for me,” he told the Boston Globe. “I wanted to keep swimming, but I wanted to figure out how to transition, as well.”

Though Bailar originally planned to swim for the women’s team once he recovered from surgery to remove his breasts, Morawski threw him a “huge curveball” in February.

“She offered me a spot on the men’s team instead,” Bailar said. “I was very taken aback, and I left the office in tears. It was an incredible opportunity, but at the time it threw my whole world into an imbalance. . . . It wasn’t an option that I had thought about.”

Moreover, the National Collegiate Athletic Association has no objections to Bailar competing with other men, reported Out.com. NCAA rules allow transgender males — transitioning from female to male — to compete on men’s teams. However, transgender males can no longer compete on women’s teams after they’ve undergone hormone treatments to avoid creating “unfair competitive advantage.”

“I can’t live inauthentically anymore,” Bailar told The Washington Post. “So do I give up my goal of being a great women’s swimmer to be a decent male swimmer at best? Yes. There is pride and glory in this path, too.”