Like any competitive swimmer, Meghan Cortez-Fields knows how high the stakes can be in a sport where mere hundredths of a second can mean the difference between victory and defeat. But she is among the few who have feared what victory may bring. “I was afraid that if I was able to win, all of my success would be discredited because I was trans,” Cortez-Fields, a senior on the women’s swim team at New Jersey’s Ramapo College, told CNN. As an NCAA competitor, Cortez-Fields underwent more than a year of hormone therapy, blood tests and testosterone tracking to meet the association’s transgender athlete guidelines and achieve her dream of swimming alongside other women.