After the culmination of our first triathlon camp, one of the campers posted the sentiment that not only underlies camp, but also permeates everything we do at NYX Endurance: this is a team sport. Sure, we each put on our own bib number at a race, but if you’ve never been to a team event, you may not know the extent to which coming together propels us towards feats we may never have known ourselves to be capable of.

On Thursday, March 17th, Lia Thomas became the first transgender athlete to win an NCAA swimming championship, taking the title in the 500yd. freestyle. In so doing, her accomplishment sparked an outpouring of debate around the issue of equity in female sports: whether there are defining lines in an increasingly gender-expressive world and if so, who gets to define them. Is there a safe and fair way to distinguish what constitutes gender with regard to athletic competition? Does the basic human right to claim your own true identity have to be at odds with the necessity of female sports to be considered on their own terms?