When the clock struck 6 a.m. Friday morning, four teams rowed toward the horizon in a race expected to last more than a month. This year's World's Toughest Row from Monterey Bay to Kauai's Hanalei Bay, in Hawaii, had barely begun and was already historic.
One team had Taylan Stulting on board. Stulting is the first out, transgender person to compete in the annual World’s Toughest Row across the Pacific Ocean. An announcer described Stulting’s team: "they are a mixed gender trio from the USA made up of queer, trans and ally athletes."
The team—Oar the Rainbow—was formed about three years ago. Team members also created a nonprofit with the same name to raise money for Doctors Without Borders and Athlete Ally, an organization aimed at eliminating homophobia and transphobia in sports.
The nonprofit raised over $60,000 before the race started. In a pre-race interview, Stulting told KAZU they grew up horseback riding in South Carolina, which is one of few sports that does not segregate by gender.
"I was in an environment where, in some ways, gender didn't matter as much. And then when I started rowing in college, that's also around the time when I came out as trans," said Stulting. "And it became kind of like this point of fear almost—like, I can't both be trans and row because it is gender segregated."
As they found more inclusive rowing spaces in New York City, they got back into the sport. At this challenging time for trans athletes, they wanted to spread the word that ocean rowing is for everyone.
"I really wanna continue uplifting that message and being that representation that I didn't have at first," said Stulting.
World’s Toughest Row spokesperson Nikki Holter says anyone can attempt this extreme sport journey.
"You know, we've had 17-year-olds and we've had a 71-year-old," Holter said. "We have people from all kinds of different cultures, so it just adds to the color. It adds to the fact that literally there is no discrimination in ocean rowing."
Follow the teams—which come from Ireland, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States—here.
