On January 25, Chris Mosier became the first known openly transgender athlete to compete in an Olympic trial as the gender with which they identify. Mosier, a 40-year-old All-American duathlete and Hall of Fame triathlete, made history by starting the race, a 50 Kilometer race walk, held outside San Diego, California.
Perhaps just as impressive as Mosier’s barrier-breaking identity is the fact that he’s relatively new to the sport in which he’s already broken barriers. The Chicago-born athlete competed in his first race walk this past September, winning a national championship. In his second race a month later, Mosier finished 12th in the nation, thereby qualifying for the Olympic Trials.
To be clear, Mosier is not the first openly trans man to participate in the Olympic Trials; that feat was achieved by track and field star Keelin Godsey. Yet where Godsey played in women’s events, Mosier competed as a man among other men, the first such trans athlete to do so in an Olympic Trial.
Unfortunately, Mosier’s Olympic campaign was cut short when he had to withdraw mid-race because of a knee injury. Yet the setback has not dimmed the athlete’s desire to continue racing — a fact Mosier elaborated on, among a bevy of other issues, in a recent interview with the New York Times.
Besides being a world-class athlete, Mosier, the first trans athlete to be sponsored by Nike, is also an outspoken advocate of trans athletes and the broader LGBTQ+ community. Just days before his historic Olympic Trial run, Mosier was active across his social media channels calling out HB 1057, a transphobic policy proposed in South Dakota aimed at criminalizing health care providers for offering gender-affirming care to TGNC youth. “The truth is that gender affirming care is life-saving for trans kids. Do not deny young people in South Dakota their right to a happy life,” the runner tweeted.
In his interview with the Times, Mosier also discussed the deeply concerning crop of legislation aimed at preventing young trans athletes from competing in sports as the gender with which they identify. “There’s no opportunity for me to go silent because now is the time more than ever that I need to speak up,” he said. “It’s so important for me to use my platform to speak out against these bills and make sure that people are informed.”
According to Outsports, at least six states are actively considering legislation that would bar young athletes from competing in sports as a gender other than the one they were assigned at birth.
As for Mosier, the racewalker plans to return to duathlons, setting his sights on making Team U.S.A for 2021. Yet as he told the Times, regardless of which sport he’s playing, the goal remains the same: “For me, it’s all about making a pathway for all the trans athletes that come after me.”
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