A USF nonbinary athlete faced challenges, but won the race

Alex Rodriguez had no idea he won the Miles for Moffitt 5k after he finished the race in November.
Rodriguez, 20, – who identifies as nonbinary and uses he/they pronouns– didn’t even know there was a category offered for nonbinary runners.
“Like I finished the race, went to the bathroom, got food, I didn’t realize until quite a bit after the race there’s a category,” Rodriguez said.
Miles for Moffitt are a set of races held in downtown Tampa that raise money for cancer research. It’s a cause that is personal to Rodriguez. His father had Stage 3 thyroid cancer and went into remission in 2015.
Rodriguez also is a rower, even being recruited to join Lehigh University’s Division 1 rowing program in Pennsylvania.
He rows for USF’s varsity women’s team and is in the process of switching his gender marker to nonbinary.
Loving the aspects of rowing practice that involved running, he said he joined USF’s running club during his freshman year.
“It’s you against the clock,” Rodriguez said. “For there to actually be a category that I could be competitive in – it’s not just me against my time – I can actually compete and be involved. That was just really important.”
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Nonbinary categories in running are offered on a case-by-case basis, according to Rodriguez.
“It was really cool because I felt there was specifically a category that represented this group of people in the community, and I just had no idea there was a nonbinary category for running,” he said.
Florida is one of the 23 states that restrict transgender athletes from full participation in sports. In 2021, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill banning transgender females in public high schools from playing on girl’s sports teams.
On Monday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order in which the U.S. government will only recognize two “immutable” sexes.
Rodriguez said his experience being a nonbinary athlete has been “pretty bad.”
He said he used to get testosterone from USF’s Haven Clinic – which served members of the LGBTQ+ community. Rodriguez said the clinic shuttered in May 2023, the same month a bill banning gender-affirming care for minors in Florida passed.
“It just cut off all my friends’ access to care,” he said.
Testosterone is considered to be a performance enhancer in many sports, according to the National Institute of Health. Rodriguez said it feels “weird” still competing in female categories.
“I feel like I’d just rather raise the clock at some point, like I’d rather just focus on what other people are doing and just focus on my fitness,” he said.
Despite the challenges of being a nonbinary athlete, Rodreguiz said the 5k was a great experience.
“Everyone in the running club is so supportive, and everyone in the Moffitt 5k was really cool,” Rodriguez said.