Hi! I want to share an essay of mine that went up today. It’s an idea I’ve been mulling over for a while in various forms, and I’m so proud of the end result. For Defector, I wrote about swimming, trans athletes, and [checks notes] Santana.
On my trips to the Y:
Now shirtless with exposed top-surgery scars, I kick off my sandals, put my goggles in place, and lower myself into the pool they consistently keep too warm. Slowly, I start to churn through those shitty laps for 30 minutes, breathing hard and pausing frequently. During my struggle, I always end up thinking about another swimmer—a GOAT swimmer—Katie Ledecky, and while doing this I get the 1999 song “Smooth” stuck in my head.
This is all kind of tangled up in my belief that fairness in sports is a bunch of bullshit. Read the rest of the essay here. Thanks to Lauren Theisen for the edits and Mattie Lubchansky for the illustration.
A lil Easter egg for the nerds
I am equal parts amused by and ashamed of this absolutely perfect correction. Thanks to the kind soul on Bluesky who pointed out the error.
A nice photo
True Julie heads may remember I did a September book event in Seattle at the women’s sports bar Pitch the Baby. I was in conversation with the writer Maggie Mertens. My friend Jai Broome was kind enough to shoot some pictures of Maggie and me, and I like this one because it sure seems like I was saying something hilarious and witty. (Don’t fact-check me.)
That’s all for now, as I await copy edits to review for Finding Renée Richards. Exciting! More soon.