Portland, Maine
CNN
—
She’s a two-time All American in 200- and 400-meter races. A college athlete used to winning, with a goal of making the 2032 US Olympic team. But 21-year-old Sadie Schreiner says she feels “defeated.”
Not by the sport she loves or the physical rigors of the training but by the shifting rules on transgender athletes that have left her running alone around the track or now not running competitively at all.
But she won’t stop. “I don’t know what would happen if I don’t have track and field, and I’m not going to see that reality,” Schreiner insisted.
Schreiner knew when she was young that her physical body didn’t match her gender and began transitioning while in high school. She takes 8 pills daily to keep her testosterone levels low enough so they aren’t detectable on lab tests.
“(The hormone therapy) shrank my ligaments. It’s made me shorter. It’s made me weaker. It’s lessened my muscles. It’s redistributing my fat. It’s lowered my lung capacity,” Schreiner explained. “My biology is fundamentally different than a cis man.”
Her NCAA 24:12 personal best for the 200 meters puts her in the top tier of her age group but she said she’s a wholly different athlete than the high school kid who ran in boys’ races. “I am now 20% slower than I was in 8th grade.”
Undetectable levels of testosterone used to be the standard to compete in NCAA competitions.
Schreiner says she makes other accommodations too: “I don’t even change in the locker rooms.”
But there’s nothing more she can do to run in college events – the competitive home of young US athletes – since the NCAA governing body followed President Donald Trump’s executive order titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” with a rule change limiting participation in women’s sports to those assigned female at birth.
She switched to meets organized by USA Track & Field – the national governing body for the sport – which holds competitions across the country for all ages and skill levels.
It was the only place Schreiner was allowed to compete, isolated from her teammates and coaches. In some races, she ran around the track alone, with no competition in her age group, which she called “brutal.”
“I am literally racing against me, instead of racing at these college meets, at the competitive levels I should be.”
Schreiner’s support base is now largely limited to her parents and boyfriend Ace.
Her dad, Greg Schreiner, said: “She’s in a completely different spot than she was prior to her transition … and (transgender athletes) all just get looped together in the same conversation.
At a meet in Maine earlier this month, entrants alongside Schreiner included elementary and high school children and seniors. She ran the indoor track alone, in a different class to the others.
Between her two races, Schreiner checked the USATF’s rules on transwomen competing. Two nights earlier she’d received an email stating she didn’t meet requirements for transgender athletes.
Sure enough, the rules posted online had become more restrictive, matching regulations from World Athletics. Essentially, another ban was in effect.
“They silently changed their policy,” she said. “It means there’s likely no more meets in the United States that I could run.”
The impact was not lost on Greg Schreiner either. “It’s sad, you know, you want to be excited about and celebrate your kids. I love to watch Sadie run and thinking that this is potentially her last race in this country, you become melancholy,” he said.
USATF didn’t respond to an email from CNN requesting clarification on when and why the policy changed.
Looking for ‘a fair and equal playing field’
One hour away from where Schreiner got the tough news at her meet, a rally at Maine’s capital was taking place.
A crowd held up signs that read “save women’s sports” and “the weakest men compete with girls.”
“I want to see a fair and equal playing field for women,” said high school senior Cassidy Carlisle, who attended the rally with her parents.
The three-sport athlete says it was “defeating” when she competed and lost to a transwoman in a skiing competition.
“I was being beat by someone that has a physical advantage over me,” Cassidy told CNN.
Maine was thrust into the spotlight on this issue in February when the state’s governor clashed with Trump during a meeting of governors at the White House.
Trump called out Democrat Gov. Janet Mills in the crowd, asking if she was going to follow his executive order.
“I’m complying with state and federal laws,” Mills replied.
Trump then warned her federal funding would be stripped from her state if she didn’t comply, to which Mills shouted, “we’ll see you in court.”
That has become a bit of a rallying cry for some in the state with small shops selling T-shirts emblazoned with the phrase.
Multiple investigations by federal agencies – the US Department of Agriculture, Department of Justice, Department of Education, Department of Health and Human Services – have followed, and in some cases, federal dollars have been denied to the state.
Mills declined multiple requests for an interview with CNN.
There’s opposition to her inside the state house too. “Honestly, it’s embarrassing we’re known for this interaction,” said State Representative Laurel Libby.
The three-term Republican was censured by her colleagues, “muzzled” in her words, after posting on her social media page a picture of a trans athlete pole vaulter who won a state championship.
“We’ve learned that just *ONE* year ago John was competing in the boy’s pole vault … that’s when he had his 5th place finish,” Libby wrote, “Tonight, ‘Katie’ won 1st place in the girls’ Maine State Class B Championship.”
Opponents called for Libby to remove the post and apologize, requests she rejected.
“I will not apologize for speaking the truth and standing up for Maine girls who deserve the opportunity to compete on a fair, safe and level playing field, and currently don’t have the ability to do so,” she said.
Schreiner says the question of safety has no relevance in her case, in an individual sport and as a woman who transitioned years ago. “I don’t exist in any capacity that threatens anyone,” she said. “When I go to these meets, I’m the one that’s getting threatened.”
She said she gets death threats regularly but would still be ready to be a voice in the conversation to help people understand her experience and point of view.
“I’m tired. I’m scared in a lot of ways,” she added. “I feel isolated, and it feels like a very independent fight right now.”
But she does not want to give up running and she’s looking at moving to Australia or New Zealand, which are “way more inclusive and years ahead of us in policy,” she said.
And even though she US organizations won’t let her run, she remains steadfast in her goal to compete in the Olympics.
“Eight years from now, I am going to be in the Olympics, just maybe competing for Australia,” Schreiner smiled.
Correction: A previous version of this story used the wrong first name for Schreiner’s father. He is Greg Schreiner.
