Yale swimmer Iszac Henig knew at 14 that he identified as a boy. He told his mother that he wanted to be her son instead of her daughter, but he wasn’t ready to make that commitment at such a young age.
Last year during the COVID-19 pandemic, classes were remote at Yale and the swimming season was canceled. Henig decided to take a year off from school and work at home in Menlo Park, California.
Henig, now 21, had a lot of time to think about his transition. At the beginning of last year, he decided to come out as a transgender male. He returned to school in 2021 for his junior year with the support of his Yale women’s teammates, coaches and the university.
“For me, as for everyone, the pandemic was sort of something that stopped time and accelerated it,” he said. “It meant that I had a lot of hours at home. I took a year off from school, I was working a couple different jobs, but I was also spending a lot of time doing some pretty deep introspection and trying to reconnect with a part of myself that I didn’t sort of always feel connected to. That ended up with me coming out at the beginning of 2021, first to family, then to close friends, extended family. My team.
“With that process for me it was a lot of something about the way I’m living my life wasn’t working and identifying what that was. Making the switch that needed to happen has allowed me to live a much more authentic, happy, fulfilling life already, and it’s been less than a year.”
Henig started swimming at age 4 at a rec center in Menlo Park. He was the captain of his high school team and held school records in the 50-, 100- and 500-yard freestyle events. In 2016, he qualified for the Olympic Trials in the 50-meter free.
He came to Yale and was a member of the Ivy League champion 200 free and 200 individual medley relays as a freshman and finished third in the 100 free in the Ivy League championships his sophomore year.
Henig decided he wanted to transition slowly. so he was able to compete for the women’s team, as he has not taken any male hormones.
“I wanted to take one thing at a time,” he said. “I’ll take this year and swim on the women’s team because that’s where I have my stronger connections. Those are my friends, my girls, see how that goes, and I can always re-evaluate.”
Last year, he underwent top surgery, a procedure to remove breast or chest tissue, and said everyone he told was supportive.
“As with anything, changes are hard to adjust for some people, even for myself, but the feedback was overwhelmingly positive,” he said. “I have a great community around me that I’m incredibly grateful for.”
Henig’s season has not been without controversy. In the last few weeks, he found his name in the headlines after competing in a meet against Penn and Dartmouth on Jan. 8 in Philadelphia.
Penn’s Lia Thomas, a transgender female who has undergone hormone treatment for over two years and competes on the women’s swim team, has recorded the top times in the nation this season in the 200 and 500 freestyle. With that has come an outcry from former Olympians and many across the nation who feel that Thomas is not competing fairly.
Thomas and Henig faced off in the 100 freestyle, with Henig winning the race in 49.57 and Thomas finishing sixth in 52.84. During a November meet, Thomas swam the 100 in 49.42. They also competed against each other in the 400 free relay, with Henig’s team winning the event. Henig also set the pool record that day in the 50 free (22.76).
As a result, one of Thomas’ Penn teammates told Outkick she believed Thomas colluded with Henig.
“Looking at [Lia’s] time, I don’t think she was trying,” the anonymous Penn swimmer alleged. “I know they’re friends and I know they were talking before the meet. I think she let her win to prove the point that, ‘Oh see, a female-to-male beat me.'”
Henig refuted the report and said he only met Thomas in person for the first time at the meet.
“In the fall semester, when some of the media stuff first started to come out, I saw it and I reached out over Instagram DMs just to introduce myself and offer a word of support,” he said. “That was really the only connection we had.”
Thomas and Henig will swim against each other again at the Ivy League championships at Harvard on Feb. 16-19.
“It’s cool I have the opportunity to race her,” Henig said. “She’s incredible. I’m really glad to have her in the league.”
Last week, the NCAA Board of Governors voted to amend its policy for transgender athletes. Transgender women were required to be on testosterone-suppressing drugs for 12 months before becoming eligible to compete in women’s divisions. Now, they must meet testosterone thresholds set by the national governing body of the sport they play. A transgender man, such as Henig, could not compete on a women’s team once he started taking testosterone.
The new thresholds could be in place as soon as next month in advance of the NCAA championships in mid-March.
“I think that we’re here to play our sport,” Henig said Monday. “We follow the rules. We’re here to listen to the NCAA guidelines. If they are updated, they’re updated. I would hope with all sports, everything is based on science and fact, rather than opinion.
“Because the new guidelines push the writing and expectations of those rules to national governing bodies of sport, there is a lot of it that is simply yet to be seen.”
Henig is a bit of a reluctant spokesperson for transgender rights but felt compelled to speak out.
“I want to reiterate that I’m just some guy. I’m just some dude who gets to play his sport at a really cool level,” he said. “I’m just here to go fast and have a good time.”
And when he is faced with negative feedback, he relies on his support system.
“It’s tough,” Henig said. “It’s a lot of people who don’t necessarily know what they’re talking about making a lot of noise. So remembering that and drawing on my support networks, the friends who come and say, ‘Hey, man, you doing all right? I saw someone said something nasty.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, thank you for checking in.’ Relying on my friends and family, strengthening those support systems and focusing my energy there as opposed to in the negative places.”
Lori Riley can be reached at lriley@courant.com.
