Go inside OTL interview with Texas transgender wrestler airing Sunday at 9 a.m. on ESPN

Today at 1 p.m. ET on ESPN’s Outside the Lines, reporter Tisha Thompson interviewed transgender wrestler Mack Beggs in the controversial athlete’s first time on national television.

The 17-year-old Beggs received attention when he won the state title wrestling against girls. His championship was controversial because he was taking testosterone. In this national television exclusive, Beggs opens up about the challenges he’s faced being transgender, receiving national attention and his dreams as a wrestler.

“I first contacted Mack’s stepfather, Damon McNew, by phone a couple days before the Texas state wrestling championships,” said producer David Lubbers. “Damon said that Mack would be excited that ESPN was interested in his story. But he said that meeting or interviewing Mack was not happening until after the state meet, if then.”

Four days after winning the state title, Beggs sat down with Thompson in a revealing interview that debuted today at 1 p.m. on ESPN, the full interview will air on Sunday at 9 a.m. on ESPN.

“Mack says all he wanted to do was win a state championship. It’s the same dream every teenage athlete has – but just days before the biggest match of his young life, Mack suddenly found himself in the national spotlight because of decisions adults have made – parents, coaches, politicians and even President Trump,” said Thompson. “Mack’s state championship happened the same week the President changed national policy on the treatment of transgender students. At the same time, a parent filed a lawsuit to try and keep Mack from wrestling, while some coaches told their athletes to forfeit rather than wrestle Mack.”

Beggs found himself in a unique situation for any 17-year-old boy.

“All of the sudden, nearly every national outlet in the nation wanted to interview Mack, get his opinions on complex political issues. It’s an incredible amount of pressure for most adults – and he’s just 17-years-old,” said Thompson.

This is Thompson’s first story since joining ESPN’s enterprise unit. There are a lot of reasons why Thompson feels this story is so important to share on ESPN.

“There’s been so much attention on how a parent went to court to try and prevent Mack from wrestling, claiming Mack could potentially hurt other girls because of his testosterone treatments. And how Texas rules require Mack to wrestle girls because his birth certificate says he’s a girl, even though he identifies as male. But no one has actually heard from Mack about why he takes the testosterone and how he believes the testosterone and the wrestling have literally saved his life,” said Thompson. “He says he’s never told anyone some of the things he shared with me in our interview such as how he started to contemplate suicide in middle school and began cutting himself because he was so confused about what was happening inside his body.”

“The most powerful part of Mack’s story, for me, isn’t the fact he won a state championship in spite of all the national media attention and political debate over trans rights,” Thompson says. “It’s the process of how he went from those darkest moments of his life to becoming a state champion who could handle that kind of pressure. What he and his family did to turn him into the resilient individual he is now. That’s why I think this is such an important story.”