When track star CeCé Telfer discovered running, she described it as finding a missing piece of herself.
“Track has been the one consistent thing in my life that has saved me,” she told Yahoo Entertainment. “It’s the only thing that’s made me feel free.”
In 2019, Telfer made history as the first openly transgender woman to win an NCAA title, claiming the top spot in the women’s 400-meter hurdles while attending Franklin Pierce University. However, since then, she and other trans women have faced increasing barriers to competing in female categories in international sports events.
Her dream of competing in the Olympic trials was dashed in 2021 when USA Track and Field claimed that she didn’t meet the hormone-level eligibility criteria that year. The situation became more challenging for Telfer in March 2023 when, two days before she was to compete in the Olympic Trials, World Athletics, the governing body for track and field, implemented regulations that effectively barred trans women from competing in female sporting events, putting an end to Telfer’s aspirations for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Despite these setbacks, she continues to train daily not only for herself, but for other young trans athletes.
“We walk so they can run,” she said of being a role model. “There’s something in my soul that says I have to keep going. I just have to.”
Raised by a single mother, the Jamaican-born Telfer hid her gender dysphoria for fear of being persecuted. Running, she explained, became her only sanctuary — offering a sense of freedom and identity in a world where she felt she had to hide her true self.
“When I look in the mirror, it’s still hard to accept what I see,” she said. “Sport is an escape from that. Practicing my sport and doing it aggressively, paying attention to all the details, it really helps. The physicality, mentality and spirituality of it all, there’s a special connection.”
Telfer’s family moved to Canada when she was 12, then moved again to the U.S. in high school. She entered Franklin Pierce University in 2014 and began competing there in 2016 on the men’s team, though she had already begun to identify as a woman.
She took a break from competing during the 2018 season to start gender-affirming hormone therapy. This marked the beginning of her physical transition from male to female, aligning with the NCAA’s requirement that trans athletes undergo at least one year of hormone replacement therapy before competing in their identified gender categories.
The NCAA revised its policy in 2022, requiring trans woman athletes to submit a hormone-level test before the start of both the regular season and championship events. The new policy does not apply to trans male athletes.
Telfer began competing again in the 2019 season — this time in the women’s category. That’s when she said her life, and her love of track, really blossomed.
“I was able to get confirmation from my doctors that this is who you are. You’re doing the right thing. You are a woman. Keep going,” she recalled. “Sports offered more security and value to my life when I had nothing else. I felt like I could conquer the world.”
But embracing her authentic self came at a price. Telfer said she experienced periods of homelessness after being disowned by her biological family after she came out to them as trans in 2018.
Throughout her 2019 season, Telfer said she and other trans runners experienced a wave of online harassment not only from fellow competitors but from far-right figures who called their wins an injustice to women athletes. She writes about those experiences in her memoir, Make It Count, published in June.
Telfer remains determined to compete, though she continues to face criticism from people who argue trans athletes shouldn’t be allowed to participate on sports teams that match their gender identity.
“It sucks being at the forefront of a war that we didn’t start,” Telfer said. “It’s the craziest thing. Our doctors are saying we’re doing the right things, but society is saying that we aren’t. They say, ‘You’re taking the medications you need to. We support you.’ But when it comes to sport, it’s like, ‘Oh, you can’t do that.’”
As for the scrutiny she and a number of trans athletes face, “we didn’t ask for this,” Telfer said.
“We were put in this position, and because we are at an international and elite level, it’s blown even more out of proportion when it should really be more controlled, handled, and if anything, not dehumanizing,” she explained.
Telfer said she’s running for every person who’s ever been told they don’t belong, for every trans athlete who has had to fight just to step onto the field.
“I have seen great athletes who’ve stopped competing because it’s a toxic environment for them, and they don’t see the point in continuing the sport,” she said. “It makes me sad. What wasted talent.”
Against the odds, Telfer’s drive to compete at the highest level has only grown.
“My goal is to compete in the next Olympics and try to overturn this horrible and dehumanizing ban,” she said. “ I know there’s work to be done. Protocols and policies need to be changed.”