Mack Beggs is 17 years old and has spent two years transforming his body with testosterone to transition into a man, although he was born female and that is what his documents indicate.
He did not want to step onto that mat in Houston. Neither did Chelsea Sánchez, the girl who ended up facing him in the Texas state championship final.
But a regulation that requires athletes to compete according to their sex at birth left no room for exceptions, not even when a lawsuit tried to stop it weeks earlier.
He won 12-2, isolated for most of the tournament, amid applause and boos that did not leave him unmoved. Before that final, he had already said the only thing that mattered to him: that no one should give up on themselves, because you never know when you might find yourself.
Although people on the internet were not so happy with his victories, questions quickly arose about which category Mack should compete in, the women’s or the men’s.