Sports
Harvard’s trans swimmer preps for sophomore year
Schuyler Bailar on navigating college life after nat’l media spotlight
Schuyler Bailar says Harvard is ‘the first place where I felt like I could be me.’
It’s 6:03 a.m. on a Monday at Harvard University and freshman Schuyler Bailar is just waking up. After taking five minutes in bed to check social media, he is up and on his bike heading across campus to swim practice.
Training starts at 6:30 a.m. and then it is into the pool for a two-hour threshold workout. A quick trip to the training room for recovery is followed by breakfast with his teammates.
There will be some studying, classes, downtime and a nap until lunch, followed by more studying and maybe another class. Weightlifting for an hour leads to night practice in the pool for another hour.
Light stretching to loosen up is completed before he heads off to dinner. The rest of the night is spent studying with friends or going somewhere off campus. Bedtime is at 10 p.m.
That was the typical day for Bailar during his first year at Harvard as a member of its NCAA Division I men’s swim team. His best time in the 100-yard breaststroke at the beginning of the season was 1:03.1. In the final meet of the season he uncorked a 59.4 individually and a 58.6 in a relay. For those unfamiliar with the upper echelon of swimming, that is a huge drop for one season.
“The whole team was up cheering for me and there were a lot of high-fives and hugs,” says Bailar. “I didn’t win, but I had just swum a best time and it was a really cool moment.”
It sounds like a scenario you would hear from many college swimmers in their freshman year though there are some items that need to be added to complete Bailar’s schedule.
There was a “60 Minutes” segment, an appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres show and requests from every major news outlet. Even though he was just settling into college, living away from home at 19 years old and going from a small school to a large school, he engaged with the media despite everything else on his plate.
He knew it was important to share his journey so that others may learn from it. He had already been reporting it through his Instagram, his blog and his YouTube channel, but now it was going mainstream.
Schuyler Bailar is the first openly transgender NCAA Division I swimmer and also the first publicly documented NCAA Division I transgender man to compete as a man in any sport.
“Everything was crazy last year and I was extraordinarily busy outside of all the other things I was doing,” Bailar says. “It added a different level to my schedule and it was not my style of living.”
While still in high school, Bailar was recruited by the Harvard women’s swimming team but he chose to take a gap year to transition. After transitioning he was also offered a spot on the Harvard men’s team.
Merging into the college athletic experience has taken some adjusting on Bailar’s part. In high school, he kept to himself and his swimming was completely outside of school. Those two aspects of his life never mixed.
“At Harvard, everything is intermingled and everybody is everywhere. I am social and very relational, but I like my alone time,” says Bailar. “I have had to learn to be social with my teammates because I had never done it before.”
In terms of his time drops in the pool during his freshman year, it remains unclear as to what he is capable of doing in the future. He began hormone replacement therapy in June of 2015 and he is going through the same body changes that happen to all Division I swimmers when they step into such an intense training program. Bailar has decided to focus on other aspects of swimming instead of setting time goals.
“I am putting value in feeling good in the water, taking care of my shoulders and being consistent in practice,” Bailar says. “It is a huge mindset shift because I had to relearn how to race people that might be a body length ahead of me.”
Acceptance from his teammates came early on as head coach Kevin Tyrrell called a meeting with the swimmers who number close to 40. They were all on board with him being on the team.
Another topic to consider was the locker room situation. Coach Tyrrell asked Bailar what he wanted and offered his own office as a changing room. His parents, Gregor and Terry, had some safety concerns regarding other teams, but Bailar wanted full integration into the locker room.
“The coach’s office was a nice fallback but segregation is not supportive of me on a human level,” says Bailar. “I needed to be part of the team dynamic. It hasn’t always been easy but it is something I want. My teammates would never let anyone from another team bother me.”
This summer Bailar spent time in Park City, Utah, shadowing an orthopedic surgeon, training in the pool and teaching swimming lessons to people with disabilities. Heading into his sophomore year at Harvard, he is still undecided on what his course of study will be and says for now he is keeping his options open.
When he returned to his home in McLean, Va., in July, he competed at the PVS LC Senior Championships at the University of Maryland. He attained his goal of qualifying for the finals in the 100-meter breaststroke where he knocked off more time from his preliminary heat.
As the swimming season approaches this fall at Harvard, he is in better shape than last year.
“It is a human condition to want to belong. I belong in the pool, I belong in my room, and I want to belong to the team,” Bailar says. “What drew me to Harvard was that it was the first place where I felt like I could be me.”
Sports
Jason Collins dies at 47
First openly gay man to actively play for major sports team battled brain cancer
Jason Collins, the first openly gay man to actively play for a major professional sports team, died on Tuesday after a battle with brain cancer. He was 47.
The California native had briefly played for the Washington Wizards in 2013 before coming out in a Sports Illustrated op-ed.
Collins in 2014 became the first openly gay man to play in a game for a major American professional sports league when he played 11 minutes during a Brooklyn Nets game. He wore jersey number 98 in honor of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student murdered outside of Laramie, Wyo., in 1998.
Collins told the Washington Blade in 2014 that his life was “exponentially better” since he came out. Collins the same year retired from the National Basketball Association after 13 seasons.
Collins married his husband, Brunson Green, in May 2025.
The NBA last September announced Collins had begun treatment for a brain tumor. Collins on Dec. 11, 2025, announced he had Stage 4 glioblastoma.
“We are heartbroken to share that Jason Collins, our beloved husband, son, brother and uncle, has died after a valiant fight with glioblastoma,” said Collins’s family in a statement the NBA released. “Jason changed lives in unexpected ways and was an inspiration to all who knew him and to those who admired him from afar. We are grateful for the outpouring of love and prayers over the past eight months and for the exceptional medical care Jason received from his doctors and nurses. Our family will miss him dearly.”
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Collins’s “impact and influence extended far beyond basketball as he helped make the NBA, WNBA, and larger sports community more inclusive and welcoming for future generations.”
“He exemplified outstanding leadership and professionalism throughout his 13-year NBA career and in his dedicated work as an NBA Cares Ambassador,” said Silver. “Jason will be remembered not only for breaking barriers, but also for the kindness and humanity that defined his life and touched so many others.”
“To call Jason Collins a groundbreaking figure for our community is simply inadequate. We truly lost a giant today,” added Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson in a statement. “He came out as gay — while still playing — at a time when men’s athletes simply did not do that. But as he powerfully demonstrated in his final years in the league and his post-NBA career, stepping forward as he did boldly changed the conversation.”
“He was and will always be a legend for the LGBTQ+ community, and we are heartbroken to hear of his passing at the young age of 47,” she said. “Our hearts go out to his family and loved ones. We will keep fighting on in his honor until the day everyone can be who they are on their terms.”
The Washington Blade will update this article with additional reaction when it becomes available.
Sports
New IOC policy bans trans women from Olympics
New regulation to be in effect at 2028 summer games in Los Angeles
The International Olympic Committee on Thursday announced it will not allow transgender women from competing in female events at the Olympics.
“For all disciplines on the Sports Program of an IOC event, including individual and team sports, eligibility for any Female Category is limited to biological females,” reads the new policy.
The policy states “eligibility for the Female Category is to be determined in the first instance by SRY Gene screening to detect the absence or presence of the SRY Gene.”
“On the basis of the scientific evidence, the IOC considers that the SRY (sex-determining Region Y) Gene is fixed throughout life and represents highly accurate evidence that an athlete has experienced or will experience male sex development,” it reads. “Furthermore, the IOC considers that SRY Gene screening via saliva, cheek swab or blood sample is unintrusive compared to other possible methods. Athletes who screen negative for the SRY gene permanently satisfy this policy’s eligibility criteria for competition in the Female Category.”
The policy states the test “will be a once-in-a-lifetime test” unless “there is reason to believe a negative reading is in error.”
The new regulation will be in place for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
“I understand that this a very sensitive topic,” said IOC President Kirsty Coventry on Thursday in a video. “As a former athlete, I passionately believe in the rights of all Olympians to take part in fair competition.”
“The policy that we have announced is based on science and it has been led by medical experts with the best interests of athletes at its heart. The scientific evidence is very clear: male chromosomes give performance advances in sport that rely on strength, power, or endurance,” she added. “At the Olympic Games, even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat. So, it is absolutely clear that it would not be fair for biological males to compete in the female category. In addition, in some sports it would simply not be safe.”
(Video courtesy of the IOC)
Laurel Hubbard, a weightlifter from New Zealand, in 2021 became the first trans woman to compete at the Olympics.
Imane Khelif, an Algerian boxer, won a gold medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Khelif later sued JK Rowling and Elon Musk for cyberstalking after they questioned her gender identity.
Ellis Lundholm, a mogul skier from Sweden, this year became the first openly trans athlete to compete in any Winter Olympics when he participated in Milan Cortina Winter Olympics in Italy.
President Donald Trump in February 2025 issued an executive order that bans trans women and girls from female sports teams in the U.S.
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee last July banned trans women from competing in female sporting events. Republican lawmakers have demanded the IOC ban trans athletes from women’s athletic competitions.
“I’m grateful the Olympics finally embraced the common sense policy that women’s sports are for women, not for men,” said U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) on X.
An IOC spokesperson on Thursday referred the Washington Blade to the press release that announced the new policy.
More than a dozen LGBTQ athletes won medals at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics that ended on Sunday.
Cayla Barnes, Hilary Knight, and Alex Carpenter are LGBTQ members of the U.S. women’s hockey team that won a gold medal after they defeated Canada in overtime. Knight the day before the Feb. 19 match proposed to her girlfriend, Brittany Bowe, an Olympic speed skater.
French ice dancer Guillaume Cizeron, who is gay, and his partner Laurence Fournier Beaudry won gold. American alpine skier Breezy Johnson, who is bisexual, won gold in the women’s downhill. Amber Glenn, who identifies as bisexual and pansexual, was part of the American figure skating team that won gold in the team event.
Swiss freestyle skier Mathilde Gremaud, who is in a relationship with Vali Höll, an Austrian mountain biker, won gold in women’s freeski slopestyle.
Bruce Mouat, who is the captain of the British curling team that won a silver medal, is gay. Six members of the Canadian women’s hockey team — Emily Clark, Erin Ambrose, Emerance Maschmeyer, Brianne Jenner, Laura Stacey, and Marie-Philip Poulin — that won silver are LGBTQ.
Swedish freestyle skier Sandra Naeslund, who is a lesbian, won a bronze medal in ski cross.
Belgian speed skater Tineke den Dulk, who is bisexual, was part of her country’s mixed 2000-meter relay that won bronze. Canadian ice dancer Paul Poirier, who is gay, and his partner, Piper Gilles, won bronze.
Laura Zimmermann, who is queer, is a member of the Swiss women’s hockey team that won bronze when they defeated Sweden.
Outsports.com notes all of the LGBTQ Olympians who competed at the games and who medaled.
Jason Collins dies at 47
Polish government to recognize same-sex marriages from EU countries
America’s broken pipeline of mental healthcare for trans youth
GLAA releases ratings for 18 candidates running for D.C. mayor, Council, AG
Blade finalist for D.C. Society of Professional Journalists awards
Maren Morris to headline Capital Pride Concert
Va. Supreme Court invalidates Democrat-backed redistricting plan
Celebrate Pride in Lost River, a slice of rural heaven
Learn more about queer love
