June Eastwood to Become First Transgender Runner to Compete in DI Cross Country – runnersworld.com

On Saturday, August 31, Juniper Eastwood will become the first transgender athlete to compete in DI cross country when she runs for the University of Montana in the women’s division at the Clash of the Inland Northwest meet.

Assigned male at birth, Eastwood, now a 22-year-old senior, says she has identified as female since middle school and made the decision to transition during her third year competing on the men’s track team at Montana.

It will be her first race for the Grizzlies since following the NCAA’s policy on transgender student-athlete participation, which requires transgender athletes who are transitioning from male to female to be treated with testosterone suppression medication for one year before competing on a women’s team.

Eastwood’s last race was 15 months ago when she placed seventh in the men’s 1500-meter final at the 2018 Big Sky Conference Championships. While Saturday’s competition will mark the longest stretch of time between races for Eastwood, she is “excited and nervous” to toe the starting line again and believes it will be a step forward for trans athlete inclusion and an important phase of self-discovery.

She knows that eyes will be on her Saturday in Washington, but she’s hoping people take the race for what it is—an early-season meet that let’s Eastwood and her teammates check in on their fitness.

“My hope is that it’s not a big deal,” Eastwood told Runner’s World. “That said, I know there’s a lot of attention around it, and I’m hoping that it’s more positive than negative.”

Leading a ‘Double Life’

Eastwood grew up in Belgrade, Montana, and began running in middle school around the same time that she started to identify as female. After doing some research online, she discovered that the term “transgender” explained the distress she was feeling with the changes in her body during puberty.

Unable to share her struggle with anyone else, Eastwood suppressed her feelings by embracing the sport of running.

“When I was running more miles, I wasn’t thinking about it as much,” Eastwood says. “The rest of it didn’t seem so bad.”

While competing for Belgrade High School, Eastwood was a state champion in cross country, the 800, 1600, and 3200 meters—accomplishments that led to an opportunity to compete on the men’s track and cross-country team at Montana in the fall of 2015.

Eastwood excelled in competition on the track, but she was also waging an internal battle between two conflicting identities.

“It was a double life for a long time,” Eastwood says. “On one side of the coin, you’re presenting this male athlete to everybody in middle and high school, and on the other side of the coin, when you’re at home by yourself, you have the weight of what you’re experiencing on your mind.”

For three years, Eastwood competed as one of the top runners on the men’s track team for the Grizzlies. She posted personal bests of 3:50 in the 1500, 4:22 in the mile, and 14:38 in the 5K, and earned All-Big Sky Conference honors.

Then, an injury during her sophomore year ultimately became the turning point that helped her realize she needed to address her identity, as Eastwood told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.

Without the distraction of running, Eastwood said she battled depression as she felt the full impact of her struggle. She almost quit the team.

The identity question eased after she made the decision to transition, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to keep running at the college level. One night during her junior year when she was up late journaling at the 2018 Big Sky Indoor Track Championships, she realized she couldn’t give up the opportunity to compete in college. It was then Eastwood made the decision to continue running as an NCAA athlete.

“I decided that I would regret it down the road if I decided to quit running,” Eastwood says. “I felt like those two additional years of experience as a college athlete were going to be really valuable to me, and so far that has been true.”

Soon after, she found the NCAA’s policy on transgender inclusion and decided to pursue the next chapter of her running career.

Joe Lesar

Competing in the NCAA

In 2011, the NCAA introduced an inclusion policy for transgender student-athletes, which lays out guidance, practices, and policy recommendations for NCAA athletic programs to follow to ensure that transgender athletes receive fair and equal opportunities to participate.

The policy, written by Pat Griffin and Helen Carroll, compiles medical advice and understanding of transgender healthcare from several doctors and specialists in genetic studies.

According to the NCAA’s policy, a trans female athlete being treated with testosterone suppression medication may not compete on a women’s team until completing one calendar year of treatment.

While the policy does not list specific levels for testosterone suppression, it does state that part of the student’s responsibility is to provide a letter from his or her physician documenting intent to transition or transition status, as well as identifying “the prescribed hormonal treatment for the student’s gender transition and documentation of the student’s testosterone levels, if relevant.”

“Research suggests that androgen deprivation and cross sex hormone treatment in male-to-female transsexuals reduces muscle mass; accordingly, one year of hormone therapy is an appropriate transitional time before a male-to-female student-athlete competes on a women’s team,” Eric Vilain, M.D., Ph.D., currently the chair of the department of genomics and precision medicine at George Washington University, expressed in the policy guidelines.

After that year of treatment, a transgender female is considered to be at an equal physical playing field with athletes who were born female.

About three months after Eastwood began treatment, she started to experience what she describes as a dramatic shift in her athletic ability, including a loss of endurance and muscle strength, as well as a drop in VO2 max.

“I went from being a competitive male athlete toward that top quarter to being about the same on the women’s side,” Eastwood says. “I’m not the best on my team right now, so it’s sort of interesting because I was before.”

Montana’s head track coach, Brian Schweyen, has noticed what he called a “drastic change” and drop-off in speed from her prior racing days, too.

“June’s times, intervals, and training in workouts don’t compare” to her previous stats, he says.

While Eastwood says she’s slower than she once was, she feels more confident in her physical abilities as a runner now that she’s transitioned.

“The effort I go work out at is the same that I would work out at before, it’s just slower,” she says. “I definitely feel more affirmed in my current ability than I did before.”

Preparing for the Storm With Support

Eastwood started training with the women’s cross-country team last summer, and she says she’s been met with overwhelming support from her new teammates and coach.

“She’s a great competitor. She has drive and a willingness to push hard to succeed in goals that she has set for herself. I think that’s what all great competitors do,” Schweyen says, emphasizing that while she has a tough road ahead of her, he’s inspired by her resilience.

Now as a trans female athlete, running has taken on a new role in Eastwood’s life.

“It’s a lot easier now. I’m not as conflicted about it. It doesn’t feel like I’m giving one piece of myself up just for running,” she says. “I feel like I can do both at the same time now. Overwhelmingly, it’s a lot more positive.”

As the season neared, Eastwood read every resource she could find and sought out guidance from other trailblazers in the transgender rights community. She reached out to Joanna Harper—a scientist and trans woman who has published research on transgender performance—and was able to meet Schuylar Bailar, a former swimmer at Harvard who was the first female-to-male transgender athlete to compete in a Division I sport.

Bailar emphasized the importance of having a supportive circle around throughout the transition, Eastwood says.

“Having that supportive community is part of what makes this possible,” Eastwood says. “It definitely helps dealing with the negativity around you when the people who are in your immediate vicinity are overwhelmingly positive.”

Eastwood also felt inspired by the composure that Caster Semenya displayed throughout the ongoing court case that ruled her ineligible to compete internationally in the 800 meters, the event in which she earned an Olympic gold medal in 2012 and 2016. The South African middle distance runner is assumed to be hyperandrogenic, meaning she has naturally high levels of testosterone that exceed the “normal” limits.

Joe Lesar

In watching Semenya’s poised reaction to the ruling as well as her composure under the intense pressure of the media storm that surrounded her, Eastwood found hope.

“Even with all of that negativity, it’s still possible to continue pushing forward,” Eastwood says of Semenya.

Eastwood has also found positive distractions through her studies as a philosophy major with a minor in Native American studies, and at work at a summer camp for girls dedicated to eliminating racism and empowering women. When she runs alone, she often listens to podcasts that tell stories about ultrarunning, a passion that she wants to pursue after she graduates from college.

“I feel like it’s an interesting way to figure out who you are as a person and as a runner, and I’m a lot more interested in that than winning a race,” she says.

In training with the Grizzlies women’s squad, Eastwood has a new appreciation for the importance of teamwork. When asked about her goals for the season, she admits that she doesn’t have any individual aspirations because she’s going in with a “blank slate.” She just wants to help the team place higher at the major meets like the Big Sky Conference Championships and NCAA regionals.

“Being part of a team means being part of something bigger than myself,” Eastwood says, “and that makes it easier for me and makes the sacrifice more worth it because every single one of those girls that are on the team means so much to me.”

Taylor Dutch is a freelance writer living in Austin, Texas.