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43-year-old Chris Mosier is a competitive triathlete, duathlete, and racewalker. He is famously known as the first openly transgender American athlete and is also an advocate of transgender rights in sports.
The six-time member of Team USA, Mosier has been tracking the trans-inclusion policies since 2013. He has passionately consulted the International Olympic Committee (IOC) multiple times on transgender participation policy.
Born in Chicago, Illinois in 1980, Chris Mosier struggled with his gender identity from the age of four. Growing up, he developed an interest in athletics. However, during his school and college days, he felt awkward competing in women’s races. Until 2009, he identified as a female athlete.
Eventually, in 2010, he took a leap and underwent a gender transition. In the process of changing from a female to a male, he took testosterone and changed his official documents.
Chris Mosier challenged the IOC policy in 2016
After changing his gender to a male, Mosier was unstoppable. In 2015, he became the first openly known trans athlete to make it to Team USA’s men’s sprint duathlon and advanced to the 2016 Duathlon World Championship Race.
Although he had qualified that year, he faced obstacles due to the IOC’s guidelines. The policy suggested that transgender athletes were only eligible for participation if they had reassignment surgery followed by at least two years of hormone therapy.
Mosier went on to challenge the policy in 2016 and brought a significant change for the transgender athletic community. As per the new guidelines that year, no surgery was required for female-to-male transgender athletes, and they were eligible to compete in men’s competitions. Male-to-female athletes had to maintain their testosterone levels below a certain limit at least one year before their first competition.
Chris Mosier’s achievements and awards
After successfully bringing about this change, Chris Mosier was allowed to participate in the World Championship in 2016 and future races. In 2017, he won second place in his age group 35 to 39, in the long-course duathlon in the 2017 National Championship. Mosier also won two National Championships in Race Walking in 2019.
In 2020, he became the first known transgender athlete to compete in the Olympic Trials. He participated in the 50k Racewalk event but failed to finish it due to an injury.
His latest achievement is his victory at the 2023 National Championship at the USA Triathlon Duathlon Gravel National Championship race in Arkansas.
Awards
Chris Mosier has collected dozens of awards and recognition in various events. In 2011, he received an honorable mention by USA Triathlon for the 2011 USAT Spirit of Multisport Awards for his notable work in promoting transgender visibility and LGBT inclusion in multisports, as well as his commitment to creating a friendly environment for all gender types.
He was named the Athlete of the Year at the Compete Sports Diversity Awards in California in 2013. Mosier also made it to the 2014 Trans 100 list. The same year, he also made it to The Advocate's annual "40 Under 40" list.
In 2016, Chris Mosier was named Outsports Person of the Year, was a part of the Out magazine's OUT100 list, and earned All-American honors in duathlon.
