US track star says she feels ‘defeated’ after Trump’s move against trans athletes

She’s a two-time All American in 200- and 400-meter races. A college athlete used to winning, with a goal of making the 2032 US Olympic team. But 21-year-old Sadie Schreiner says she feels “defeated.”

She’s a two-time All American in 200- and 400-meter races. A college athlete used to winning, with a goal of making the 2032 US Olympic team. But 21-year-old Sadie Schreiner says she feels “defeated.” Not by the sport she loves or the physical rigors of the training but by the shifting rules on transgender athletes that have left her running alone around the track or now not running competitively at all. But she won’t stop. “I don’t know what would happen if I don’t have track and field, and I’m not going to see that reality,” Schreiner insisted. Schreiner knew when she was young that her physical body didn’t match her gender and began transitioning while in high school. She takes 8 pills daily to keep her testosterone levels low enough so they aren’t detectable on lab tests. “(The hormone therapy) shrank my ligaments. It’s made me shorter. It’s made me weaker. It’s lessened my muscles. It’s redistributing my fat. It’s lowered my lung capacity,” Schreiner explained. “My biology is fundamentally different than a cis man.” Her NCAA 24:12 personal best for the 200 meters puts her in the top tier of her age group but she said she’s a wholly different athlete than the high school kid who ran in boys’ races. “I am now 20% slower than I was in 8th grade.”