Janae Kroc

Janae Marie Kroczaleski is an American who previously competed as a male professional powerlifter and competitive bodybuilder. The sex assignment first chosen for Kroczaleski was male; she was born Matthew Raymond Kroczaleski, a name legally changed 3 months prior to coming out publicly as transgender in July 2015. In regard to combined (squat, bench press, and deadlift) equipped powerlifting total, on April 25 2009 in Iowa she set the male world record in the 220 lb. weight class with 2,551 lbs (composed of 738 pound bench press, 810 pound deadlift and 1003 pound back squat) which at the time was also the fifth highest total for the 242 lb. male weight class. Matt no longer held the record as of August 21, 2010 when a 2,715 pound total was achieved by Shawn Frankl (the man who held the record prior to Matt) in Ohio.

Military
She served in the United States Marine Corps from 1991 to 1995 and was selected for Presidential Security duty serving under President Bill Clinton. The tour of duty included time in Washington DC, providing security for military officers at the Pentagon and for some of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1992 to 1994. Assigned to security duty for Warren Christopher (then Secretary of State) during the United Nations Conferences in '93, she was later assigned to the security force at the Presidential retreat at Camp David from 2004 to 2005.

Powerlifting
Janae began entering powerlifting contests after joining the Marines in 1991.

In 2002, she graduated from college and bought a home, prior to the 2002 USAPL Nationals, and later went to London, Ohio to train at a compound with Dave Tate and Jim Wendler. Matt also trained with Mountain Dog John Meadows, Branch Warren and Johnnie O. Jackson.

Matt developed what she called "kroc rows", or dumbbell rows performed with extremely heavy weight and many repetitions. She made a video showing 25 repetitions with 225 pounds, and has been known to perform kroc rows with 300 lb dumbbells. she also described lifting 300 lbs for 13 reps using straps and both 205 lbs for 30 reps and 175 lbs for 40 reps, neither with straps. The 300x13 claim was verified at the 2010 Arnold Sports Festival.

In 2017 after 18 months on estrogen, performance was reduced to 210 pounds for 10 reps and deadlifted 605 pounds.

Kroc is a world champion and world record holding powerlifter and a National Physique Committee bodybuilder.

Seminar speaking
In 2012, Matt spoke at Learn To Train Seminar 4. Matt then shared this online from December 2012 to March 2013.

Other
Matt graduated from Ferris State University in 2002 and is a registered pharmacist working in the specialty pharmacy division of Walgreens. Matt had careers as a sponsored athlete under contract with both EliteFTS and MuscleTech and as an author and model, having appeared in and published articles in many magazines including Men's Fitness, Powerlifting USA, MuscleMag and Muscle & Fitness and is a featured author for T-Nation. She joined YouTube in 2006.

Personal life
In interviews, Kroc has described growing up in a trailer in a rural conservative area. Kroc started working out with cement-filled Sears weights at 6 years old, including doing 100 reps on a 10-pound dumbbell, and at 8 years old constructed a weight bench out of a 2x4 or 2x12 on cement blocks and made a barbell out of milk jugs filled with sand hung on a stick. She weighed 118 pounds as a high school freshman, and, after graduating high school at Standish-Sterling Central.

Matt had three children with a woman named Patty, they split up in 2006. Matt also married a woman named Lauren.

In 2004, Matt was diagnosed with testicular cancer. Janae says Matt was the "Manliest of the Manly Men", known as an "Ultimate Alpha Male" before he transitioned. Janae came out to friends and relatives (including 3 sons, aged 2/4/6 at the time ) around 2005.

In April 2015, the forenames Matthew Raymond were legally changed to Janae Marie. Janae was a name chosen by Kroczaleski's mother.

In July 2015, Kroc came out as both transgender and gender fluid. Janae is living as both genders, describing often feeling like two completely different people trying to share a body, fighting for control. After a solitary use of "her" in an open letter (misrepresented plurally as "pronouns" ), HuffPo interpreted this as a preference. Janae has used male pronouns when referring to Matt in the past tense. Kroc has written of picking a gender to identify with "more" in the context of hypothetically being "forced" to.

People described an Instagram post where Janae described undergoing facial feminization surgery more than one year ago. Earlier articles   state similarly.

After and August interview by Dave Palumbo, in September Janae announced the start of a full gender transition, starting both surgical and hormone treatments, and stopping career lifting.

In October, Janae referred to an interview where male pronouns are used to refer to Matt as "one of my best interviews". In the interview Janae mentions being 4 weeks into estrogen therapy, and taking a testosterone blocker. That same month, Matt was mentioned on the cover of Muscle and Fitness which featured an interview and a photo shoot. Matt was formerly on the advisory board for the magazine, this was the longest (highest word-count) story published to date in Muscle & Fitness, and the first to feature a transgender athlete.

In December, Janae's was the first featured among the top 63 most powerful comings-out of 2015.

A 2017 facial feminization surgery was delayed due to an infection from a cat bite.

Awards

 * 2006 Arnold Classic WPO Powerlifting Middle Weight Champion
 * 2009 All-Time World Record setter in the 220lb class (surpassed in 2010)