Iszac Henig

College career

Henig entered Yale University in the fall of 2018, to study the ocean organisms that had fascinated him in his youth, but majored in Earth and Planetary Science, for lack of a Yale Marine Biology department.

Henig continued swimming competitively. While swimming on the women's team, he was part of two Yale championship relay teams, and scored three top 10 places in each of the 2019 and 2020 Ivy League Championships. In 2019 he was selected for the College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America Scholar All-American Team, recognizing students that both achieved a grade point average of 3.50 or higher and competed at their respective NCAA Championships; he would be selected again in 2020 and 2022. In 2020, he shared an award for scoring the most points in dual meet competition, and took third place in the Ivy League championships for the 100-yard freestyle.

Gender transition In the spring of 2021, Henig came out to his parents and teammates as a trans man, and had a double mastectomy as part of his gender transition. That month he broke three Kiphuth Pool records, with his teammates for two 200-yard relays, and individually for the 100-yard freestyle.

On January 8, 2022, Henig set another pool record, this time at the Sheerr Pool of the University of Pennsylvania in the 50-yard freestyle, as well as helping Yale win other events in a match against Penn and Dartmouth. Among the swimmers that Henig directly defeated then was Lia Thomas, a trans woman and Pennsylvania student who had been at the center of the debate about transgender people in sports, with many claiming her biological sex gave her an unfair advantage. Thomas came in sixth in the 100-yard freestyle, which Henig won. Henig also posted a faster time than Thomas in the 400-yard freestyle relay. Due to Henig's, and especially Thomas's, participation, the match attracted national media attention, unusual for a college swimming meet, and boycott threats which did not materialize. Afterwards, an anonymous Pennsylvania swimmer told the sports website OutKick that Thomas was not trying and intentionally let Henig win; Henig said that he had never met Thomas before the event. Thomas narrowly won the 100-yard freestyle over Henig's second place alongside three other events, making her the highest scoring swimmer in the event. Henig won the 50-yard freestyle, setting a pool record as Thomas watched and applauded. Harvard alumnus Schuyler Bailar, the first openly transgender NCAA Division I swimmer, attended to support them both.

In March 2022, when both Henig and Thomas were at the NCAA Division I Women's Swimming and Diving Championships, and protesters opposing Thomas's competing were outside the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center, Henig wrote "let trans kids play" in sharpie marker on his bicep in support of Thomas and against transphobic legislation in sports. Henig took fifth place in the 100-yard freestyle at the championship, earning All-America recognition. Thomas was also in the race (finishing eighth), making it the first NCAA championship final race with two transgender competitors. A group of University of Arizona swimmers cited Henig's achievement in an open letter to the NCAA Board of Governors to oppose transgender athletes competing, writing that Henig's All-America award-winning time would have failed to reach the men's qualifying time. Outsports named Henig and Thomas joint Transgender Athletes of the Year in 2022.

Henig went on testosterone-based hormone therapy after the NCAA championships and moved to the Yale men's swimming team for his 2022-23 senior season. When he swam in the June 2022 Ohio State Invitational, he took from 69th to 79th places in the 50-, 100-, and 200-yard men's freestyle events.