1st Lt. Gabrielle White is the first woman to finish the Best Ranger Competition. See what she endured in the grueling 3-day event.

In mid-April, US Army 1st Lt. Gabrielle White and her teammate, Capt. Seth Deltenre, competed against more than 50 two-member teams to earn the Best Ranger title.

White graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 2021. Upon completing Ranger School in April 2022, she earned her Ranger tab, an embroidered patch symbolizing the elite qualification.

The 25-year-old infantry officer was assigned to an Army leadership development program at the Maneuver Centre of Excellence, the Army’s training hub for ground combat forces, at Fort Benning in Georgia, where the Best Ranger events are held.

The Best Ranger Competition was created “not just to see who is the toughest or the most physically fit,” but also to “see who is mentally the strongest, the most determined to finish,” according to Lt. Gen. David E. Grange Jr., a commanding general of Fort Benning and namesake of the event.

For nearly 62 continuous hours, Ranger-qualified soldiers work in teams of two to demonstrate tactical skills, complete difficult obstacle courses, and traverse dozens of miles on both land and water.

The competition events mirror real-world Ranger missions, from helocasting and fast-roping to positioning mortars and cutting through steel-reinforced frames.

Jeffrey Mellinger, a former sergeant major who served in the 75th Ranger Regiment, described the difficulty of the Best Ranger as the Ironman triathlon, the CrossFit Games, and several marathons — stacked back-to-back.

“There is not another competition anywhere in the world that comes close to the mental and physical exertion of this competition,” he told The New York Times.

The Best Ranger Competition is so difficult that only a handful of competitors actually make it to the finish line.

White and Deltenre secured a 14th-place finish after 36 other duos were eliminated over the course of the competition.

In 2015, the Army allowed women to participate in its 62-day Ranger School course. Nearly two dozen female candidates attempted to complete the course, and in August 2015, then-Capt. Kristen Griest and then-1st Lt. Shaye Haver became the first women to graduate from one of the service’s most elite programs.

Four months later, the Pentagon opened all military positions to women, including over 200,000 direct combat roles that were previously barred to them. Women make up about 16% of the Army’s active-duty troops, according to the Pentagon’s 2023 demographics report.

As of January 2025, 154 women have graduated from Ranger School.

White’s groundbreaking finish in the Best Ranger Competition comes as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth orders a broader review of the requirements for combat roles.

In late March, Hegseth ordered a 60-day review of the military’s physical fitness standards to distinguish combat roles from non-combat and implement higher requirements as needed.

“We need to have the same standard, male or female, in our combat roles,” Hegseth, a former National Guard infantryman and Fox News host, said in a video posted to X. “Soon, we’ll have nothing but the highest and equal standards for men and women in combat.”

Hegseth had said during a podcast in November that he didn’t believe women should be in combat roles at all, arguing that it “hasn’t made us more effective, hasn’t made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated.”

However, ahead of his confirmation hearing, Hegseth appeared to soften his staunch opposition.

“If we have the right standard and women meet that standard, roger. Let’s go,” he said during a December interview on the “Megyn Kelly Show.”

The Army is shifting to a new Army Fitness Test with gender-neutral scoring for troops in combat specialties.

Military occupations, like special operations and infantry, subject all candidates to higher physical, mental, and psychological standards, regardless of sex or age.

To become an Army Ranger specifically, the rigorous entry standards are identical, including the eligibility requirements and physical assessment.

Mellinger, who served on an advisory board that oversaw the opening of Ranger School to women, said no standards have been lowered to accommodate the integration. He said White still has to earn her Ranger tab “every day, like every other ranger, like every other soldier.”

Kris Fuhr, a former Army captain who advocated for integrating women into Ranger School, described White competing for the Best Ranger title as “a three-day public display of what we’ve been saying for 10 years.”

“This administration sometimes makes decisions based on misinformation and myths,” she told The Times. “Military policy should not be based on either of those.”

Mellinger, who attended this year’s Best Ranger event, said, aside from “a bun on the back of a head,” White was indistinguishable from the other male competitors until another spectator pointed her out.

“She had the skill and the physical ability to get it done,” he said.