A 50-year-old biological male professor from York University who identifies as a teenage girl, swam against 13-year-old girls at a Markham swim meet Friday. The races in the Fall Classic swimming competition at the Markham Pan Am Centre are segregated by age and gender, where participants who are registered as a male or female with Swimming Canada appear in the relevant group on the registration forms at the event. Melody Wiseheart, formerly Nicholas J. Cepeda, 50, who teaches and studies 'gender' and 'youth' at the Toronto-based university, competed in Heat 3 with nine girls aged 13 and 14, Rebel News reported. .The media outlet received tips from concerned parents and David Menzies went to the Markham swim center Sunday to verify the claims on camera. At first the swim competition organizer denied Wiseheart swam on Friday, until Menzies produced a copy of the Friday swim schedule listing the name. “I don’t think that it happened. I’m the competition coordinator for this league. I do not recall a 50-year-old man swimming in here on the Friday, competing with little kids,” said the organizer. He explained the participants are registered through Swim Ontario and Swimming Canada and as he looked at the paper he said, “Yes, my mistake — indeed there was actually someone swimming on that day, okay, however —”“That would be Melody, right?” Menzies asked. “Well, I don’t know exactly, because I wasn’t —”“There’s no name on that list,” Menzies pressed. “Yes, there is a name in here. That’s why I’m validating what [you] said you have is correct.” He explained the sections were actually open to any age. “Don’t get into it with me on age, because that’s all Swimming Canada,” he said. .Western Standard reached out to the swim competition's governing bodies for comment.Swimming Canada confirmed that "all competitive swimmers are ultimately registered through us," but denied organizing the categories."However we do not organize/set age categories for individual local meets etc.," Swimming Canada told the Western Standard.Swim Ontario did not respond by the time of publication.
