A biological female swimming champion has switched to the men’s team after coming out as transgender, only to get wrecked by male competitors.
22-year-old Iszac Henig is an Ivy League All-American swimmer who went from pool shark to scrub after “transitioning” from female to male.
The situation is the reverse of controversial Pennsylvania University swimmer Lia Thomas.
Thomas, a biological male, was a mediocre swimmer while competing on the men’s team, but caused outrage after switching to the female team to become a record-smashing “champion.”
Henig, a senior on the Yale men’s swim team, placed 79th out of 83 at a men’s meet in November.
The poor ranking came after Henig previously earned All-American plaudits as a junior on the school’s women’s team.
But in an op-ed column Henig wrote for the New York Times this week, the 22-year-old athlete, whose breasts were removed, says living as a “man” makes it all worthwhile.
“I Chose to Compete as My True, Trans Self. I Win Less, but I Live More,” the headline of Henig’s New York Times article states.
In the article, Henig, who only bested a one-armed swimmer and three others who specialize in other strokes in November, shrugs off the fall from dominance.
“I wasn’t the slowest guy in any of my events, but I’m not as successful in the sport as I was on the women’s team,” wrote Henig.
That's exactly what is happening. Here is trans men Iszac Henig who competed in the women's category. pic.twitter.com/22FuvUuSum
— Fernanda (@Fernand18962391) April 8, 2022
Henig, who hails from Menlo Park, California, was a high school phenom and even tried out for the 2016 Olympics long before having a double mastectomy and identifying as a man.
As a sophomore at Yale, Henig was the top swimmer on the women’s team.
Thomas, on the other hand, was the opposite.
As a male swimmer, Thomas was ranked number 462, but as a “female,” the transgender athlete ranked number 1 on the women’s team.
Several of Thomas’s teammates and rivals complained that Thomas’s biological advantages made competitions unfair.
Thomas and Henig actually competed against each other early last year, after Henig began “identifying” as a male but before Henig switched over to the men’s team.
Henig bested Thomas in both the 100- and 400-yard freestyle events.
In the column for The New York Times, Henig acknowledged a longstanding attraction to women but said being in the women’s locker room was always uncomfortable.
“I thought that my unease came from worry that my sexuality made others uncomfortable,” Henig wrote.
“I hadn’t yet considered that the real reason I felt so off was my sense of being in the wrong locker room.”
Henig took the 2020-2021 year off from school in order to keep a year of NCAA eligibility and begin the transition.
“I dived deeper into queerness, exploring the balance of masculinity and femininity, especially with presentation in clothing,” Henig wrote.
“Through that, I discovered binders, base-layer compression garments used to create a more traditionally masculine chest appearance.”
Henig’s breasts were removed in early 2021.
Henig, who had already been taking male hormones, was given the choice of competing as a woman or as a man upon returning to Yale.
Henig initially chose to remain on the women’s team.
However, Henig then joined the men’s team for the 2022-23 season.
