Free Republic

A transgender hurdler was ruled ineligible for tryouts for the Tokyo Olympics. CeCe Telfer was disqualified for not meeting the testosterone requirements set forth in the World Athletics guidelines. The exact nature of her violation has not been made public, but Telfer could have too much testosterone at this time or during the past 12 months. World Athletics governs Olympic eligibility and two rules decide which biological men can compete in the women’s division. Eligibility requires approval of both rules.

Four years ago, Molly Seidel wasn’t just the next big thing. She was the top female distance runner in the NCAA with four national titles and the Olympic Trials on the horizon. But instead of signing a splashy contract with a shoe company, Seidel was sidelined with a sacral stress fracture and watched the U.S. Olympic Track Trials from the stands at Hayward Field, where her Notre Dame teammate Dani Aragon gave her a reality check. “You look like you’re dying,” Seidel remembers her friend saying. “You need to get help.” The truth was, the fastest woman in the NCAA...

It all came crashing down one morning in April 2015, when April Lund was 32. The evening before, she had stayed out late drinking, and she woke up alone in her apartment in Bismarck, North Dakota, with no idea of how she got there. “I blacked out completely,” she told Runner’s World. “That’s when I knew I had to change my life.” At the time, Lund was overweight and had been struggling with an alcohol addiction for about eight years. She had just moved to Bismarck from St. Louis, Missouri, where she said her social life centered around drinking. While...

When Perry Shoemaker crossed the finish line of the Eugene Marathon in 2:43:33, qualifying for the 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials, it was the realization of a dream she had pondered as a possibility since 2015. She had kept the goal quiet, sharing it only with those closest to her. She’s a runner, a mom, and a preschool teacher, and, well, she’s realistic. Sometimes things go according to plan. Other times they don’t, and that’s okay, too. Plus, she’s 48 years old, and she didn’t know how many chances she had left. For her to run the sub-2:45 she needed? Everything...