A transgender athlete who competed as a man before winning the NCAA women’s championship is vowing to return to indoor track competition and “take all the records.”
CeCe Telfer became the first openly trans woman to win an NCAA title when she placed first in the 400-meter hurdles at the 2019 Division II National Championships.
But Telfer suggests she is now planning an imminent return to competition, in which she plans to blast away her fellow sprinters.
“I’m looking forward to indoor track because indoor 2024 is going to be epic,” Telfer said in an interview with Them.
‘My dreams were taken away from me again. So I plan on going back to New England, playing all the indoor games and recording all the names, all the records and everything.
Transgender runner who competed as a man before winning the women’s NCAA national championship vows to return to indoor track competition and ‘take all the records’.
Cece Telfer became the first openly trans woman to win an NCAA title when she placed first in the 400-meter hurdles at the 2019 Division II National Championships (photo)
The dreams Telfer speaks of were to compete on the international stage.
In 2021, USA Track and Field prevented Telfer from competing in the Olympic Trials, arguing that she did not meet hormone level eligibility requirements.
Two years later, in March 2023, World Athletics, the international governing body for track and field, banned all trans women from racing.
It ended any hope Telfer might have had of competing in this summer’s Olympics in Paris.
In the intervening years since her 2019 victory, Telfer says she has been homeless and no longer speaks to her biological family.
She has also spoken openly about the abuse and harassment she has suffered both publicly and privately because of her participation in women’s sports.
But Telfer, who set records while competing for Franklin Pierce University, appears to have a burning desire to return to the track and is serious about setting new records in the process.
“That doesn’t always look like first place, that doesn’t always look like second place, that doesn’t always look like a podium finish, but the track that meets that number counts. That’s what lights this fire in my heart and in my body. So it makes me know that I can go to indoor games and still be the girl to talk about, period.”
The National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) has not yet made a specific statement regarding the participation of transgender athletes in sports.
Previously, the organization said they would mirror the rules of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, while each individual sport would follow the national governing body for each sport.
If there was no national governing body, every sport would follow current international policies.
Telfer vows to return to the track to break ‘all records’. She was photographed last weekend
Telfer (right) pictured after winning a Division II national title in the 400-meter hurdles as a senior at Franklin Pierce University in 2019
Born in Jamaica, Telfer moved to Canada at age 12 before moving to New Hampshire as a high school student. It was there that Telfer began participating in athletics
Born and raised as Craig, Telfer competed in the men’s division in January 2018 before undergoing gender reassignment surgery ahead of the 2019 season.
Telfer competed on the men’s team at Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire from 2016 to 2018, even though she identified as a woman
The NCAA’s transgender policy was updated in January 2022, while the ruling took effect on August 1.
By comparison, earlier this year the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), a smaller organization compared to the NCAA, banned transgender athletes in women’s sports.
The NAIA justified its decision by saying it was rooted in “fair and safe competition for all student-athletes” and that “Title IX ensures that there are separate and equal opportunities for female athletes.”
The organization said only athletes whose biological sex is female will be allowed to participate in “NAIA-sponsored women’s sports.”
Telfer has said she is “heartbroken” and “distraught” about those rules.
Telfer has suggested she is planning an imminent return to competition, in which she plans to blast away her fellow female sprinters
Telfer, who competed for Franklin Pierce University, appears to have a burning desire to return to the track and is serious about setting new records in the process
Telfer published her memoirs this month
‘Why are we going back? Why do we return? We are literally going back in history,” Telfer said.
“This isn’t real life because we were moving forward and now we’re going backwards. This is scary. The fact that people are powerful enough to go backwards is scary, not just for transgender women, but it should be scary for society as a whole. They have always policed women’s bodies. It’s about cis women and what’s happening in their lives and their bodies.
‘It breaks my heart because I had a chance. The NCAA has seen me. They gave me the opportunity to be that voice and be that physical change, and they took a step in the right direction and clearly made history, hoping that other organizations would follow.”
The issue took center stage in 2022 when UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas, pictured, began competing in women’s swimming 18 months after transitioning to record-setting
Although professional organizations establish their own rules and regulations, debates have erupted across the country over athletes competing in high school and college.
The issue took center stage in 2022 when UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas, who began competing in women’s swimming a year and a half after transferring.
Thomas went on to break several women’s records, much to the dismay of some of her teammates, and the NCAA and US Swimming organizations were criticized for allowing Thomas to compete.
Professional swimming association FINA has since effectively banned trans women from competing in the sport, saying they must have started transitioning before puberty began, which is illegal or nearly impossible to do in most of the US.
24 states have now banned transgender students from participating in girls’ sports.
A notable example is Ohio, which has passed a bill requiring students accused of being transgender to provide a doctor’s note detailing their sexual anatomy, their testosterone levels and their genetic makeup.
In New Jersey, Republican lawmakers proposed the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, which would require female student-athletes to verify the nature of their genitals in order to compete.
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Michael Testa, compared genitalia checks to random drug tests that college athletes are subjected to, and said he didn’t expect any problems with angry parents accusing girls of being transgender.