Megan Youngren is set to make history as first openly transgender woman to compete at the US Olympic Marathon trials
- Megan Youngren, 29, came out publicly as a transgender woman in 2012
- On December 8, she finished 40th at the California International Marathon
- Youngren will compete in this month’s Olympic trials in Atlanta
- She’ll be among 63 women vying for spot on US Olympic team for Tokyo Games
Megan Youngren will become the first openly transgender athlete to compete at the United States Olympic Marathon trials.
The 29-year-old will make history on February 29 in Atlanta, where the trials will be held.
She will be one of 63 women to compete at the trials, which will determine who will represent the United States at the Summer Games in Tokyo this year.
According to Sports Illustrated, Youngren began her transition from a male to a female when she was a college student in 2011.
That year, she started taking hormone medication. In 2012, she came out publicly as transgender.
She officially finalized her transition to a female last year, submitting the necessary paperwork.
Last month, Chris Mosier became the first transgender athlete to qualify for an participate in Olympic trials in the gender with which he identifies.
Mosfier became the first trans male to compete with cisgender men at the 50km race walk in Santee, California.
Megan Youngren, 29, will become the first transgender woman to compete in the United States Olympic Marathon trials in Atlanta later this month
An Alaska native, Youngren started running in 2013 to lose weight and boost her health after transitioning to a female.
Youngren said that running helped ease a case of the shingles.
She continued to run until 2017, when she competed in her first marathon in Fairbanks.
She completed the 26-mile course, which included 3,285ft of elevation gain and loss, in 4:48.
Despite the difficulty, she said that race is what got her hooked on running marathons.
In 2019, she completed the Los Angeles Marathon in 3:06:42.
Sensing that running the marathon under 3:00 was within reach, she started to train more intensively, running often when she had time off from her job at a bakery.
‘I thought that if I worked incredibly hard and took some huge risks that I could run a 2:45,’ Youngren says.
‘People will try to put it down by saying, “That’s too easy because you’re trans.”
‘But what about the 500 other women who will qualify? There’s probably someone with the exact same story.
‘I trained hard. I got lucky. I dodged injuries. I raced a lot, and it worked out for me.
‘That’s the story for a lot of other people, too.’
On December 8, 2019, Youngren finished in 40th place at the California International Marathon, completing the course in 2:43:52.
The 40th-place finish was good enough to qualify for the trials in Atlanta.
Under international rules, those who transition from male to female are eligible to compete in the female category if her total testosterone level in serum has been below 10 nmol/L for at least 12 months prior to her first competition.
The athlete’s total testosterone level in serum must remain below 10 nmol/L throughout the period of desired eligibility to compete in the female category.