At the 2026 Athletic Brewing Ironman 70.3 Oceanside competition, held on Saturday, March 28 in Oceanside, Calif., more than 3,000 age-group athletes and more than 60 professional athletes competed alongside three incredible transmasc athletes:
- Transgender trailblazer and three-time Ivy League champion swimmer Schuyler Bailar, 29
- Disabled trans nonbinary bicyclist and one of Out’s most eligible bachelors for 2024 Chella Man, 27, and
- Trans nonbinary marathoner Cal Calamia, 29, the only one of these three to have competed in an Ironman before Saturday’s event.
Together, they formed Team Iron Transmasc. And their hard work paid off: they finished third in the men’s division, ahead of 200 other relay teams of cisgender men ages 25 to 29.
“Yeah, we kind of crushed it,” Calamia told Out after the event. “Chella was a little more like, ‘Alright, let's just kind of see what happens.’ But Schuyler and I are very competitive, so we were sort of tracking the leaderboard and seeing what was possible.”
They also found something to laugh about along the way, as they moved through what Ironman calls the area between the three kinds of triathlete competition.
“We were cracking up about the ‘transition zone.’ Been there, done that!” they said.
Finally, it all came down to Calamia, running the third leg in the Ironman relay after Bailar swam the Pacific Ocean course. And Man, who is deaf, completed the cycling portion — with their cochlear implants turned off.
“Chella pushed themself further than ever before to make this happen,” said Calamia. “But all of us pushed ourselves as much as we could.
“There was a runner that was also competing in the relay that I passed at the very, very end of the whole thing, within the last 10 meters,” they said. “I had to close the deal. There was no part of me that would quit. And we got that spot on the men's podium! It was amazing!”
Team Iron Transmasc member Cal Calamia Keeley Parenteau (@realekeeley)
After receiving their finisher medals and posing for photographs, the trio took time to celebrate their victory. “We were just playing — splashing in the ocean, doing cartwheels, piggyback rides,” Calamia said. “I genuinely haven’t felt this amazing in a very long time. I felt my inner child just explode out of me.”
They added that they benefited from “undoubtedly having the biggest support crew” of any relay team competing, and each member of Team Iron Transmasc wore something to declare their identity to spectators.
“I had a trans flag on my running shorts,” they said. “Schuyler had trans-colored goggles and Chella had a cycling suit on that said, ‘bodies are not bans.’ We felt like we were fighting for something bigger than ourselves.”
The Ironman event was held just days after the decision by the International Olympic Committee to ban transgender women from competition, starting with the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles, as The Advocate reported. That decision was "devastating" to Bailar for multiple reasons.
“One of the reasons that the recent IOC decision is so devastating is because it sends a message that sports are going to lead through discrimination, as opposed to being on a progressive way of moving humanity forwards, which is what they should be doing," Bailar said Thursday prior to the Ironman competition.
“This concept of trans athletes being the singular thing that threatens fairness in sports is predicated upon the false conception that there currently exists fairness in sports,” he added.
“We have massive disparities in sports that are largely due to systemic oppression, the same oppression that oppresses trans people, patriarchy, misogyny, classism and socioeconomic disparity, racism being a huge a huge factor as well. And if we put all these things together and we consider, what does fairness actually look like? Now we can recognize that we don't actually have a level playing field."
Bailar also noted that other than Laurel Hubbard, there’s never been a trans woman Olympian — nevermind one who medaled.
“Can anybody even name any trans women who competed in the women's category? And if you can name more than one you are literally making shit up,” he said.
Team Iron Transmasc member Schuyler BailarKeeley Parenteau (@realekeeley)
On Thursday, Chella Man also addressed the IOC decision and what they expected to think about during the Ironman. “I just really want to be thinking about this moment in the world that has unfortunately become so politicized, but that we want to play and we want to be included. And I feel like that's at the center of all of our work here,” they said.
“I honestly feel like I'm going to be thinking a lot about trans youth, all trans people. What we're doing is truly like a kinetic metaphor for community,” Man added. “Because it literally sums up how we all bring a different gift and a different perspective and the complexity of that to the table in one moment of movement that's connected together. It's really badass.”
“I think our ability to step into sport and say, ‘We're going to be here anyways, we're going to show up in all of our complexity for ourselves and for other people who can't show up,’ hopefully that can be a statement to anybody who cares to take empowerment from that,” added Bailar.
Calamia said this Ironman will not be the group’s last. “We’re already talking about what we’re going to do next,” they said. “We want to scale this up and get more trans athletes doing relays like this. We’re just excited to keep inspiring people and providing a counterweight to the other conversations about trans athletes.”
The third-place finish by Calamia, Bailar, and Mann serves as a living testament to perseverance, the strength of community, and trans joy. But Mann noted: “It is trans joy, but it's also just joy, you know? And I want to just soak up this moment with my friends and not have it have to be fuel or alchemized into a greater thing.”
Like it or not, every stroke, pedal, and step they took carries meaning beyond the Ironman competition: It was their declaration that trans people belong in sport, that their identities are valid, and that connection — and joy — can thrive even in a world full of barriers.
Their journey to the finish line reflected months of preparation, years of resilience, and a shared commitment to showing up fully as their authentic selves.
And they are not done.
“This is not work we could do in isolation,” said Calamia. “We’re doing something that’s really important — for trans people and beyond.”
Team Iron Transmasc members Chella Man, Schuyler Bailar, and Cal Calamia won third place in an Ironman competition.Keeley Parenteau (@realekeeley)
