Throughout their season, which lasts from September to mid-February, the team partakes in a rigorous practice schedule. Each week, they start practices at 5:45 a.m. on Monday mornings, followed by a second practice along with a lift in the middle. Despite this time commitment, the seniors couldn’t imagine a world where they weren’t swimming.

Weber has been swimming competitively since she was nine years old, and Ferrari since she was eight.

“For me, I could not have pictured my life without swimming, and it’s really difficult for me to picture my life in the future without swimming,” Weber said. “I think a lot of that has to do with how swimmers really work hard and I like the feeling of being with my team and getting through a really tough set together, or joking around on the bus on the way to a meet, or eating dinner together after practice. Those are things that I really value and I know I’m gonna miss once I graduate. But I think I’m lucky that every single team I’ve been on has been a really great group of people that are all super dedicated, super hardworking, and also willing to have fun.”

Ferrari appreciates the swim team for the values that they share.

“Swimmers as a group of people are really interesting and dedicated,” Ferrari said. “ There’s a certain value to them that other people — I don’t know, I don’t want to say ‘don’t always have,’ but there’s just something about swimmers and the culture that a swim team builds in my life that I really always wanted to keep. It’s kind of weird to be graduating and think of myself as a swimmer and over my competitive career per se. But honestly, that team environment and team culture and just the mentality of a swimmer — that I don’t even know how to describe.”

In contrast to some other sports, being named captain is not an election process, but instead decided by the coaches who use their judgment and receive recommendations from previous captains. Both seniors were named captains at the end of their second year and have continued to remain in the position since.

“I know in other sports, the best players are often chosen to be the captains, and that’s definitely not how it works on the swim team,” Weber said. “We’re not the fastest people on the team, so I think a lot of our role is being a role model to other people, so that’s a big responsibility. Also, serving as an intermediary between the coaches and the team, although we’ve been trying to kind of change the leadership structure a little bit so that more people can feel included and feel like they have a voice directly to the coaches.”

Swimming is both a team sport and an individual sport. Swimmers race against competitors to improve their own times while competing to improve the team’s standing, and working to improve their technique and endurance. As captain of a team unique in this way, Ferrari emphasizes the spatial awareness needed to navigate being captain of a swim team.

“I feel like you have to be aware of your mindset and where you are because obviously you need to be in the mindset to go out and race and be hyped and excited for your races,” Ferrari said. “But also, at the same time, watching out for the team and noticing, ‘Oh, maybe this person is really anxious about this event, or they’re nervous before this’ and just taking a second and talking with them and helping them get ready for their races is a lot of work. I also did that as a teammate and a member of our team, so I don’t think that was a behavioral shift once I became a captain.”

Weber points out that a common misconception people have about swimming is that it is solely individual, when in reality, swimming as a sport would not be attainable if you were by yourself.

“When it comes to a meet, yes, it’s just you and the pool, and that’s what it really is,” Weber said. “But, whatever you do, whatever place you get, that determines the points for the team. At the end of the day, your contribution can decide whether or not the team wins.”

Out of season, the captains run captains’ practices, which are lower-stakes and meant to keep the team in shape. During this time,
the team lifts, swims, and plays occasional water-polo games.

“We are also in charge of the team’s Swouse,” Ferrari notes.

“Swouse” is the term the team uses to refer to the swim house.

This team is very closely bonded and spends the majority of their time together, both in and out of the pool. Weber notes how at their last conference meet last year, which is hosted at Denison University every year, the team was just as engaged and excited as the beginning.

“I’ve never had more fun than our conference meet last year,” Weber said. “Everyone was swimming so hard and doing their best, but also you could see that our team was having more fun than any other team there. We were just joking around with each other. So it’s definitely the people that make the team.”

Weber and Ferrari’s first season occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, so they aren’t familiar with how the team operated pre-pandemic. As a result, they have prioritized creating new traditions. They express how much the team has changed since their first year, and they are working hard to ensure the culture stays the same once they leave.

One of their favorite traditions is the team brunch hosted at the start of each year, which the class of 2024 started as an opportunity to get to know the new first-years and reconnect as a team after the summer. This year, all the fourth-years on the women’s team are housemates, so they invited the team to their house to reconnect.

“Also, as a women’s team, in the fall we always go apple picking and go to corn mazes and do fun fall activities,” Ferrari said.

Going into their second year as captains, Ferrari and Weber are experienced in motivating the team to work hard and push each other. Now, their goals have shifted to ensuring they leave a positive legacy for the program.

“Swimming is a hard sport,” Ferrari said. “It’s a lot of time where you can’t talk to people, you’re in the water, your head down, and it can be very hard mentally. So just making practices fun, and making that team environment as fun as it can be, is kind of what I’ve been trying to work on the most.”

Weber explains her shifts in goals during her second year as captain.

“At first it was more about trying to figure out how to be the best leader I could, and I think that’s still true, but also with the mindset of like, ‘I’m going to be leaving this team soon, so how can I help foster the best team environment I possibly can?’” Weber said. “How can I make it inclusive so that people feel like their voices are heard? How can I make sure that people are having fun and actually enjoying practice, enjoying the need to not take anything too seriously for myself, for my team now, but
also to set them up?”

Outside of swim, the captains balance various extracurriculars along with their jobs working for the Admissions Office.

Ferrari works as a senior fellow with Admissions, a peer tutor, and an Environmental Studies major representative. She also does research with Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology Andrew Pike, OC ’08, on mosquitoes in Lorain County. She is one of the
officers of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and also volunteers weekly with Oberlin Community Services.

Weber also works for Admissions as a tour guide and is part of OSteel, Oberlin’s steel pan ensemble. Along with this, she is an America Reads tutor and has been in the same fifth-grade classroom at Oberlin Elementary tutoring English language for multiple years. She also does research for the Anthropology department. Last summer, Weber did a study-abroad internship in Peru where she worked at an non-governmental organization in Cusco that works with Indigenous people. This past summer, she worked in Cleveland at Catholic Charities Migration and Refugee Services as an immigration legal intern.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

What made you decide to write your article series?

I have a decent following on social media, and I’ve always talked about my experience being trans. There are a lot of things a cis person cannot understand about trans people, no matter how much I explain, but I can still speak about my experience. I always journaled and wrote to myself, and then I started taking writing courses. My professor encouraged it, and I worked on one piece to show her. She told me, “You should present these. You should publish these in some form, whether it be through a blog or a personal project.” I decided I wanted to commit to that. 

Can you describe a little bit more about your first article and how your time at Oberlin influenced that?

My first article is about being an athlete and a trans woman. While I am not medically transitioned, I’m still representing as a trans athlete, and my name is still labeled as Nora. At Oberlin, it’s been a very wonderful experience, and I write about that in the article — about how I came in very anxious and concerned that I wasn’t gonna be accepted. I don’t compete with the women’s team, but I still participate with them in our social events and am a representative with them. So it’s been a very good experience and, again, is why I’m really happy I’m a part of Oberlin Swim and Dive. 

It was very weird for me because, in general, I didn’t transition until I started at Oberlin, so there’s only one person here who knew me before my transition. Everyone’s getting this impression of me so it doesn’t feel weird, especially since Oberlin is a very queer campus, but it becomes whiplash when I go back home because I’m in the South. It’s not exactly the safest place to be, let alone be trans, with all this negative media publishing. 

What are your future articles?

There’s a very serious issue with trans fetishization I experience on a day-to-day basis. I thought it would be important to write on that, but it’s going to be various things that some people are afraid to speak on. There are also just general everyday lifestyle things, like what I do to learn makeup, how I dress, general things that are just a serious point of my life that I never share.

What kind of challenges have you faced as a trans athlete?

I’m not medically transitioned, but on deck I still just appear normal beyond my makeup that I’ll wear. I can still hear these comments though. For instance, when we went to conference, one of my teammates heard very transphobic comments being made by an athlete. It wasn’t directly at me, but it still impacted me. And of course, with trans swimmers, everyone heard about Lia Thomas and would come to me and say, “What’s your opinion on this?” It was extremely mentally taxing to constantly hear how demonized I was gonna be when I started publicly transitioning.

It’s the whole reason I haven’t started hormones, and I write about that and how it’s so mentally jarring to me. Even though I’m not on hormones, I’m not a “threat,” it still mentally impacts me even now. You heard about Lia Thomas 24/7 last year, and it sucks to see the difference in responses over time because in 2016, North Carolina pushed a very transphobic bathroom bill, and everything pulled out, including the NCAA and filming for the show Outer Banks. And here we are in 2023 with even worse bills being pushed, and we’re not seeing pullouts or anything. We’re just seeing, if anything, a lack of acknowledgement. It’s bleak, unfortunately, and that’s why I wanted to write about it because no one actually asks trans athletes how they feel about this stuff. They just take it from some cis straight dude who didn’t care about women’s sports until two weeks ago. 

What do you want people, whether they’re trans or cis, to take away from your articles? 

It’s essentially closure with other trans people to know that they’re not alone. I remember when I started transitioning, I felt extremely lucky, and I slowly started meeting more and more trans people who are like me and experience crazy things. One of the articles is going to be me meeting all these trans people. I met this trans woman who is a retired school teacher. She’s 80 now, and she started her transition when she was 40. It was just this whole sense of seeing someone that had lived their life and was happy.

I’m only speaking from my own experiences. But for cis people, I want them to come into the articles with a sense that they’re not gonna fully understand a trans person. I can’t understand what it feels like to be cis, but there is an extent where you can read up on people’s experiences and at least acknowledge that they’re real. The problem I see with social media is a lot of cis people just want to dunk on transphobic legislators. The main goal of my articles is for people to read up on a few of my experiences and realize that instead of just going to dunk on transphobes, they should reach out, be supportive, and check in on their trans friends when all of this stuff has been happening. 

Hopefully, the goal is to change people’s perspectives. No trans people are actually reporting on these feelings outside of trans communities. If I can reach out to even one or two people who are transphobic and it changes their mind, I think that’ll make me content with what I’ve done.

Both teams wasted no time breaking a multitude of school records. On the first of four days of competition, the women’s 200- yard medley relay team, consisting of second-years Elinor Frost, Ava Peyton, and Skye Slade and fourth-year Elly Ragone, finished in fourth place with a record time of one minute, 49.29 seconds.

Slade was especially proud of her performance after missing out on most of her events at the 2022 NCAC Championships due to contracting COVID-19.

“Being a part of a record-breaking relay was kind of like a redemption in a way, because I wasn’t even able to compete last year,” Slade said. “I am so proud of my three relay teammates, and it got my meet off to a really great start.”

The men’s 200-yard medley relay team, consisting of second-years Myles Felt, Erik Fendorf, and Isaac Viviano and first-year Dani Bocsi, finished in a record 1:32.80. The team’s time was good enough to win bronze and earn Oberlin a podium finish.

Record-breaking feats continued on the second day thanks to the efforts of Frost, Ragone, second-year Isabel Pfaff, and third- year Hannah Hale. The four Yeowomen previously held the school record in the 200-yard free relay with a time of 1:38.52. They narrowly bested their record, finishing in fifth place with a time of1:38.25.

Fendorf earned himself another top-10 finish in the 50-yard freestyle, taking ninth place with a time of 21.05 — only four hundredths of a second off from the school record of 21.01 set by Adam Winikoff in 2016.

Felt, Fendorf, Viviano, and Bocsi teamed up again to tackle the 200-yard freestyle relay, which they finished in 1:25.36, earning them sixth place and the third best time in school history. Their efforts kept the Yeomen in sixth place, while the Yeowomen ended the day in fifth.

The third day of competition saw even more records broken. Fendorf and Felt were at it again, the former eclipsing his own personal and school record in the 100-yard butterfly with a seventh-place time of 49.80 and the latter taking down a nine-year- old school record in the 100-yard backstroke with a ninth-place time of 51.64.

Finishing in ninth place seemed to become a trend for the Yeowomen on Friday. Frost earned ninth in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 59.18. Second-year Helene Prince, a diver for the Yeowomen, earned ninth place in the one-meter event, finishing her night at 263 points. Peyton capped off the night on a high note for the Yeowomen, also earning ninth place in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 59.05.

The Yeowomen continued their successes on Saturday, with Peyton finishing the 100-yard individual medley in 1:02.10, earning her an eighth place finish and the second-best time in program history. She then earned another top-10 finish alongside Ragone, Pfaff, and Frost in the 4×100 relay, finishing fifth in 3:39.99. Solo second-year swimmers Ava Schigur, Lucy Lee, and Rosalie Baron finished in 10th, 11th, and 13th place respectively in the 200-yard fly.

For the Yeomen, first-year Miguel Siwady, swimming in the 1,650-yard freestyle, finished seventh with a time of 16:04.09. Fourth-year Lucas Draper, the Yeomen’s sole diver, finished in 10th place with a career-high total of 266.95 points.

Viviano, Fendorf, Siwady, and Bocsi concluded the already successful meet with a bang. The team finished in 3:08.22, which bested the school record in the 4×100 relay. Not only did their time earn them a fifth-place finish, but it took down a school record that had not been beaten since 1995.

Denison and Kenyon College won the meet overall for men’s and women’s, respectively. Overall, the Yeomen and Yeowomen combined for 33 top-10 finishes and six school records.

Starting off with the relays, first-years Leo Powers and Daniel Bocsi, with second-years Myles Felt and Isaac Viviano, broke the school record for the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1 minute, 33.42 seconds. Bocsi, Felt, and Viviano, joined by second-year Erik Fendorf, also broke the 400 medley relay record with a time of 3:25.10 — an astonishing six seconds faster than the previous one. Earlier this season, the same group placed third in program history in the 400 freestyle relay with a time of 3:09.81.

Members of the two medley groups also did well in their individual events. Bocsi ranked seventh in program history for the 100 breaststroke (59.44) and eighth for the 100 free (47.50), and Felt ranked second for the 100 backstroke (52.23). If Felt had not already made his mark as fourth in program history for 200 butterfly, his time at the invite (1:57.70) would have placed sixth on the record board. Powers ranked fifth for the 100 fly (51.78) and tenth for the 200 individual medley (1:59.52), and Viviano ranked second for the 100 breast (57.30) and sixth for the 200 I.M. (1:58.17). Additionally, Fendorf placed third in the 50 free (21.07), fourth in the 100 free (47.00), and broke a school record for the 100 fly with a time of 50.35.
Felt reflected on the team’s record-breaking performances.

“I think the [Midseason Invite] was the team’s breakout meet,” Felt said. “We all had incredible races, and you can see that the effort we’ve been putting in is finally getting shown. We crushed our old times and those relay records, but that’s definitely not our peak. I think we still have room to grow, and it’s exciting to see how far we can go.”

Felt, Fendorf, Viviano, and first-year Miguel Siwady ranked fifth in program history for the 800 free relay (7:07.29). Siwady also placed third for the 500 free (4:41.38), the 1000 free (10:00.16), and the 1650 free (16:30.75), and seventh for the 400 I.M. (4:16.34).
Fendorf believed that the meet showed how much improvement the team made within a year.

“I was excited for the Midseason Invite to get an idea of where our team was compared to last year,” he said. “I think overall, the team has grown tremendously since years prior, as shown through the amount of records and top times that were set. All the work that we’ve put in was showcased with how fast everyone swam, and I think it’s just the start for the team.”
Finally, second-year Finley Barber ranked ninth and eighth in the 100 and 200 breaststroke (59.97 and 2:11.57, respectively).

On the women’s side, second-years Ava Peyton and Elinor Frost, third-year Hannah Hale, and fourth-year Elly Ragone broke the school record for the 200 free relay with a time of 1:38.52. Hale, Frost, Ragone, and first-year Nyrobi Whitfield ranked 10th in program history for the 400 free relay (3:41.17), less than a second behind last year’s ninth-ranked time. Ragone, who earned North Coast Atlantic Conference Swimmer of the Week, raced the second fastest time on the 50 free (24.27) and placed ninth for the 100 free (54.20).
Head Swimming and Diving Coach and Aquatics Director Alex de la Peña was extremely proud of the team’s performance at the meet.

“It is a great sign for us going into the back half of the season,” de la Peña said. “After this meet, we push the reset button as we regroup and get ready to approach the back half of our season.”

Starting at the beginning of Reading Period, the swimmers and divers will have a break until they start training again in Florida over Winter Term. After the success of this meet, Coach de la Peña sees the calm before the storm.

“[We] want to give more flexibility to them during the tougher academic time periods and also give them some time to go home to spend [time] with family for the winter holidays,” de la Peña said. “In total, there are three weeks where we send workouts [for] them to do. This puts a lot of responsibility on their shoulders to continue to train if they want to see a successful back half of the year, but this is a hardworking and responsible group that cares deeply about the team performance as well as their individual performance. … We are also looking to continue to improve on their performances in the water and have great confidence we will see that happen in February!”

Gallery • 3 Photos

Courtesy of Amanda Phillips

Ethan Long is a double-degree athlete, majoring in Technology In Music And Related Arts in the Conservatory, and undecided in the College.

At one practice, they’re stretching their legs, shooting goals, or running laps. At another, they’re tuning instruments, perfecting scales, or studying music theory. Oberlin has a unique population of Conservatory and double-degree students who also compete as varsity athletes, polishing both their sport and art while balancing the time commitments that come with both.

Double-degree second-year Ethan Long is currently a right-back defender for the men’s soccer team. He first started playing the sport when he was five years old, later playing for his high school in the fall as well as with a club team year-round. At the age of eight, he was introduced to the guitar and dabbled in upright bass and piano. However, it wasn’t until freshman year of high school that Long began producing music, starting with his own instrumental album.

After soccer practice, Long can be found producing songs in the TIMARA studios. Though undecided in the College, he is interested in Sociology or Africana Studies. Although Long has to be on top of time management, he enjoys what he studies and performs.

“I’m doing stuff that I like to do already … it just always feels like free time,” Long said. “I enjoy my major in the Conservatory, and I just enjoy what I like. This is the first semester where I have to deal with all three at the same time. Everything … is just more efficient. I’m studying when I’m supposed to, and it’s like I have everything mapped out. Because of the season, I was just so strict with what time I get everything done. There’s no procrastination; I try to get all my homework done before practice and stuff, so I’m not cramming up late at night.”

Lately, Long has been turning jazz samples into cinematic pieces and producing R&B music. He also regularly collaborates with fellow teammates, making beats with fourth-year midfielder AJ Gembala as well as jamming with second-year goalkeeper Colvin Iorio.

Conservatory second-year Emily Bergin has played the upright bass since second grade. In high school, Bergin played in the Metropolitan Youth and Long Island Orchestras, as well as All-State and All-Eastern Ensembles. Growing up in an Irish household, she played in an Irish music group for years and learned a variety of instruments including the accordion, harmonica, tin whistle, Irish flute, and mandolin. In congruence to her music education, Bergin has also been swimming since she was eight years old and currently competes the 50-, 100-, and 200-yard freestyle.

As both a swimmer and a double bassist taking part in the large ensemble on campus, Bergin has a lot of events that overlap, splitting most of her time in the Conservatory and Phillips Gym.

“It’s definitely really hard, and sometimes there’s a lot of things that the schedules overlap with for swim and all of the different music things I have,” Bergin said. “So on a Tuesday, it’s the worst day of that because I’ll usually have to go to swim at 12 right after my class. I can’t make the practice later because I have my studio class. If I’m in the rotation for orchestra, I would have to go to rehearsal right after swimming. But usually I manage to push it all together, and my coaches work with me to let me go in [to the pool] on my own time if I can’t make the team stuff.”

Sam Goetz is a double-degree fourth-year on the cross country and track team. He plays Jazz Percussion in the Conservatory and studies Environmental Studies in the College. Although he initially started playing violin, Goetz convinced his parents to let him switch to drums in fifth grade. In between practices and performances with the Minnesota Youth Jazz Band and the concert and pep bands offered at school, he played school and club soccer and ran track throughout high school. Initially recruited for the track team, Goetz first started running cross country in college, and currently runs the 8-kilometer event, a far cry from the 800-meter and mile track and field events he normally runs.

This adaptivity and flexibility has pushed him to pursue other musical endeavors — for one Winter Term, he learned and practiced marimba. Goetz has played everything from classical to rock, but he’s gravitated toward jazz.

“As I started listening to and playing more music, jazz became the most fun for me to learn,” Goetz said. “And as I got more serious with [drumming] in high school, I was like, [ jazz] is the music I want to study.”

There are also a number of other Conservatory students on the cross country team, including fourth-years Matthew Walton, and Kenny Schafer, third-year, and second-year Marisa Tayal. Goetz also plays in a New Orleans brass band with his fourth-year teammate Sam Russ, a double-degree Tuba Performance and Classics student.

Despite the challenges of balancing meets, performances, practices, and everything in between, Conservatory and double-degree musician-athletes have found ways to creatively blend both of their passions together. And for those like Goetz, the physical demand for his sport gives him confidence for his academic and musical studies.

“If I can run the 8K, then I can do anything else,” he said.

Both teams started off the meet extremely strong, beating the Pioneers in the 200-yard medley relay. The women’s team, consisting of second-years Bella Sites, Skye Slade, Elinor Frost, and fourth-year Elisabeth Ragone, recorded an impressive time of 1 minute and 57.74 seconds, while the men’s team, comprising of second-years Isaac Viviano, Myles Felt, Erik Fendorf and first-year Leo Powers, set an equally high standard for the rest of the meet with their time of 1:38.70.

The successes set by the medley teams put the Yeomen and Yeowomen in full speed for the rest of the meet. They lead in practically every event and multiple members of both teams set personal records.

Most notably for the Yeowomen, first-year Celia Perks recorded her fastest time in the 200-yard individual medley of 2:36.90. Second-year Rosalie Baron and third-year Lily Azaran also set personal records in the 100-yard breaststroke event, with Baron setting a time of 1:18.08, and Azaran with a time of 1:22.95.

“Some of us, like myself, swam events that we don’t normally train for,” Azaran said. “So for me it was really fun to swim a 100 breaststroke, an event that I haven’t before swam at Oberlin. Obviously getting wins on both sides is great for a dual meet, so I’m really proud of the team for that.”

For the Yeomen, first-year Miguel Siwady was able to set an impressive personal record of 10:00.16 in the 1,000- yard freestyle event. Fendorf also followed up his initial relay performance with fantastic showings in both the 200- yard freestyle (1:50.16) and 500-yard freestyle (5:04.19).

The diving team also had strong performances across the board. Fourth-year diver Lucas Draper recorded two career bests in both the 1-meter dive and the 3-meter dive with scores of 151.35 and 159.6 respectively. Second-year Helene Prince also set a personal record on the 1-meter, with a score of 141.35.

Both Oberlin teams were able to cap off the meet with yet another pair of impressive medleys in the 200-yd. freestyle. Ragone, along with third-year Hannah Hale, and second-years Charlotte Hantus and Izzy Pfaff, won in the women’s event with a time of 1:44.27. The Yeomen were able to win in a similar fashion, with first-years Siwady, Daniel Bosci, and Tyler Wang, along with second-year Jack Stewart, putting up a strong performance with a time of 1:32.35.

“So much training goes into these races, and I’m grateful to be able to swim with a team that supports and pushes each other every single day,” Hale wrote in an email to the Review. “Getting to celebrate a win that we accomplished as a team of four is one of the best parts of this sport.”

The team will compete against the University of Mount Union this Saturday.

What was swimming in high school like, and how did you hear about Oberlin?

My school didn’t have a swim team, so I mostly did club swimming. It was called Delfines Sampedranos, one of the best teams in Honduras. I trained two times a day, three times a week. It was a really big team, but I was one of the oldest, so I had a sort of captain role in my team along with one of my training partners, who’s also my age. I heard of Oberlin because of a recruitment email from Coach Alex de la Peña. When I got that email, I researched the school. I liked its engineering program and how I could also study liberal arts here.

What is your specialty event and why?

My specialty event is the 1,500-meter freestyle. In Honduras, not many people swim at that event, so when I was little, I decided that I was going to be good in that event because no one else was. My older brother helped with that because he also swam in that event. He was a role model to me.

How has Oberlin supported you in your training for the World Junior Championships?
The beginning of the competition was at the same time as the international students’ orientation. I had to train here for a few days, even though the season hadn’t started. Coach Alex and Coach Ben Corley opened up the pool at 6 a.m. and guided me throughout my last week of training before the world championships. It was really important because it gave me a few pointers on what I needed to do to improve my technique and be fast overall.

How long were you in Peru for World Juniors, and what were the most memorable experiences?

I was there Sept. 3–5. My most memorable experiences were getting to know all these different swimmers from different parts of the world, as well as getting to swim in the biggest stage for the age group that I’m in. I got to see the best hundred freestyle swimmer in the world. His name is David Popovici and watching him swim was incredible, like a different experience. Recently, like a month ago, he broke the world record. He’s only 18 years old, so it was really cool.

What else have you done this summer?

After I graduated, I traveled to Florida and swam, swam, swam there with the swim team for a month and a half. While I was not swimming, I was spending time with my father and having some time together with my family before I went to school here.

How was the adjustment to college after attending World Juniors?

It’s been easy because the swim team is very welcoming and very big. The captains are nice people and they will help if you have a problem. We always have these Stevie sit-downs. After training, we all go to Stevie as a team and eat, and we have get-togethers to get to know each other. It’s a pretty open team, almost like a family. My goal is to have a positive impact on the team and help overall, especially in the championships. The first practice in the pool yesterday was nice because we got a feeling of the pool and swimming together for the first time.

Have you thought of any potential majors or minors?

Other than engineering, I’m interested in the Cinema Studies department of Oberlin. I know it’s very broad — there’s even a class dedicated to Hong Kong cinema, which is very interesting.

College third-year Lucas Draper is a diver on the men’s swimming and diving team. Although he originally competed as a swimmer on the women’s team, Lucas started to compete for the men’s team after he broke his hand in 2020, and he began transitioning as a male athlete. Out of the pool, Draper gained national attention after publishing an op-ed in Swimming World Magazine defending Lia Thomas and other trans athletes in sports. He’s been featured on OutSports, Forbes, and most recently appeared on a CBS News Sunday Morning segment. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

What has been your experience on the Oberlin swim and dive team? 

Oberlin itself is very accepting and it’s one of the best places to be a trans athlete. I feel like there are not a lot of places where it would be this accepted, and I have been helped and supported through this process. The NCAA’s regulations can be tricky to understand and there are a lot of hurdles to go through to be able to compete. I think that going from female to male in this process is the “easier” transition. Not that it is in any way, but logistically and through the world’s perspective, it is less stigmatized and criticized. There is less of a concern about the level of hormones that I’m on, whereas the other way around, male to female, they care a lot more about what your levels are. 

I have to wear a women’s suit because I haven’t had top surgery, so there are situations where I go to meets and people look at me and are like, “Oh, a women’s suit — must be a woman.” There was one instance at a meet where a diving coach came up to me and two other Oberlin divers. Before the meet, you have to write down what dives you’re going to do and give it to them. He was like, “I’m missing one of your women’s dive sheets.” They assumed that they were missing a dive sheet when they weren’t. I said to the coach, “I’m Lucas, I’m the male diver.” He looked confused and walked away, but there wasn’t any confrontation there.

I haven’t had anybody try to stop me from competing, but I carry around all the documentation I have in a little plastic pocket — every letter I’ve received from the NCAA, every blood test I’ve ever had — in case anyone ever questions me.

What compelled you to write the op-ed for Swimming World Magazine ?

I was a journalism intern for Swimming World before. When the Lia Thomas situation happened, I reached out to the editor-in-chief at Swimming World to ask if I could write something. He agreed because he wanted an article written by somebody in the trans community. I wanted to publish it because, while I know I can’t necessarily change the minds of people who are transphobic, I wanted to give them a bit of the information on where the legislation comes from and remind them that it’s not right to take it out on Lia. Dawn Ennis, a journalist and a trans woman, also reached out to me. She wanted to interview me about my perspectives as a trans athlete because she’d seen what I’d done for Swimming World, and she wrote the Forbes article afterward. 

Did you expect the reaction that the piece got? 

Swimming World is one of the main swimming news outlets. I wasn’t expecting a response to the op-ed I wrote, but I was expecting the comments to be negative. When I would see those comments, I kept telling myself that the people who agree with me aren’t going to be the ones commenting. It’s the people who disagree, so there’s going to be a disproportionate amount of negative responses to what I wrote simply because of the nature of people. 

What are your goals for the future, activism-wise as well as athletically and academically?

Athletically, I’m going to keep diving and be the best diver that I can be. Academically, I’m an honors student. I’m starting my Computer Science honors project this semester and I’m finishing it next semester. Finally, I want to be a resource for people who are still coming to terms with their identity, continue to be a positive role model, and help continue the fight of trans athletes to get equality.

Anything else you’d like to add?

I’m not a trans woman, so I can only understand parts of what they experience [as transgender athletes]. Their struggle is a lot greater than mine. I want to recognize that and not take the spotlight away from trans women because they are the ones at the center of this controversy. I just want to spread awareness and be someone who can advocate for those who don’t feel confident advocating for themselves.

The main thing that people are arguing about is the concept of fairness. Sports are not inherently about fairness, they’re about who’s the best, and it’s difficult to determine a fair playing field. There was an article last week in the Review that Leo Ross, OC ’21, wrote. They mentioned many cisgender athletes who have inherent advantages. So the concept of fairness is not something that we can necessarily argue, and that’s something I think is very important to this discussion.

When I first sat down to talk with a friend about the Lia Thomas controversy, I approached it with an excited apprehension. Earlier that day, I had compiled a document filled with prodding questions, credible news articles, and helpful information about hormones. Over the next hour, we wove our way through ideas about fairness, genetic advantages, and my personal experience as a trans athlete. He was kind and understanding and I was grateful that he reached out. I left feeling hopeful, even enthusiastic about continuing our conversation.

But, I was also stumped. Stumped because biology felt omnipresent. I realized that Lia Thomas and the trans women who came before her are simply a microscope fixed on a bigger issue: how we interpret gendered bodies. Because ultimately, transphobia in sports is about sexism. It’s about the regulation of female bodies and the celebration of male bodies. As a female athlete who is now male-passing, this was a lesson I learned the second I started playing sports as a child.

In college, the sexism I had grown up with transformed into something more dangerous. When I was a student on the Oberlin women’s basketball team, I saw a number of people in the female athlete community struggle with eating disorders, exercise addiction, and body image issues. These athletes were stuck in the crosshairs of male desirability and athletic success. They had to craft a body that would be competitive and conventionally desirable — with these two things often at odds with each other.

But it wasn’t just social influences that regulated female bodies; it was the arbiters of the sport themselves. During the women’s basketball games, referees enacted their own ideas of fairness, mainly through fouls. Teammates who were deemed too tall or too strong or too fast were penalized disproportionately. What should’ve been seen as a competitive advantage was read as inherently unfair. 

But the thing about fairness in sports is that true fairness, a completely balanced playing field, isn’t interesting. It’s precisely the differences between competitors that makes sports so exciting. And in men’s sports, those genetic differences are celebrated. Michael Phelps’ abnormally long wingspan is glorified, not demonized. Shaquille O’Neal’s 7’1 and 324-pound frame is idolized, not critiqued. 

As a result, competitive dominance in women’s sports is understood in proximity to maleness. Take Serena Williams, for example. Throughout Williams’ career, her body has been subject to constant scrutiny and accusations, chief among them that she’s a man. 

“People would say I was born a guy, all because of my arms, or because I’m strong,” she said in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar. “I was different from Venus: She was thin and tall and beautiful, and I am strong and muscular — and beautiful, but, you know, it was just totally different,” Williams said.

Regulating female bodies, like that of Serena Williams, has rippling effects. It impacts what we think an athletic body should look like. It electrifies an obsession with fairness in women’s sports. Because lurking in the shadow of the Lia Thomas conversation is a nearly impenetrable swell of perceptions around gender. 

With that in mind, I want to address a few groups specifically. 

For all the female athletes who feel a need to “protect” women’s sports, please know that I understand. I really do. After years of enduring sexism from men, I still have a gut instinct to defend our space. I’ve felt the boiling frustration of not being taken seriously. I’ve seen our dedication, drive, and sacrifice turned into a joke.

But to exclude trans women from sports is to validate all the men that claim women’s bodies aren’t good enough. It changes nothing about the rampant sexism in women’s sports and does everything to reinforce it. Drawing a line between cis women and trans women legitimizes the regulations that determine what an “appropriate” female body should look like. Because women of all experiences, cis or trans, should never have to prove that their body is “woman” enough. 

For the male athletes who may read this piece… if you’re still upset about fairness in women’s sports, wait until you find out what’s really happening. 

According to the National Women’s Law Center, “While women are 53 percent of the student body at Division I colleges, they are only 41 percent of the athletes, receive only 32 percent of recruiting dollars, and get only 36 percent of overall athletic operating budgets.”

Despite higher participation rates than before, The National Center for Education Statistics states that “Current girls’ participation numbers have never reached the boys’ 1971-72 level. In 1972, when Title IX was passed, boys’ participation numbers were 3,666,917, which is 324,591 more than girls have in 2016.”

It’s okay if you didn’t know these things. But now that you have this information, are you equally upset? Does that same rage and disbelief curdle in your chest? Are you going to talk about this with your friends? Complain to your teammates? 

If you are — wonderful! Ask the female athletes in your life what their relationship with sports is like. If not, then your anger is directed more toward trans people than competitive fairness. And before that statement raises defensiveness, I challenge you to think critically about what I’ve said.

And finally, for the trans athletes who read this piece, know that you have a right to play the sport that you love. No one should ever take that away.

Author’s Note: There are a plethora of experiences that take place at the borderlands of insufficient words and those are for a slightly different article. That being said, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me directly if you have suggestions for a better use of language! If you have further questions about why I used the language that I did, I’d also love to have that conversation.