Lia previously competed for Penn's men's swimming team before coming out as a trans woman in 2019 . [14][15] Thomas's event progression peaked in 2019 for distance swimming, with a drop in times during the 202122 season. Thomas, who was projected to win gold this time, was crushed and humiliated in the 100-yard freestyle event by Issac Hennig. Transgender college swimmer Lia Thomas has spoken out about the anti-trans hostility she has faced as an athlete. Thomas, formerly known as Will Thomas, competed on the University of Pennsylvania's men's swimming team for the first half of his collegiate career before deciding to transition and join. Agreed 1000%. In the women's 500-yards freestyle in 2022, Thomas came first with a time of 04:33.24. In a rare moment, Lia Thomas and Iszac Henig, two transgender swimmers, swam head-to-head in the 100-yard freestyle at the University of Pennsylvania. MON Closed In March 2022, she became the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I national championship in any sport, after winning the women's 500-yard freestyle event. USA Swimming has released a new policy for female competitors as it addresses the furor over transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, according to Sky News host Peta. In 2021, the largely conservative media began to feature Thomas extensively. Lets put it simply- the idea of letting trans women go through a one-year testosterone suppression program and then compete in womens sports is outdated, unscientific and grossly unfair. [+] at the NCAA swimming and diving championships Thursday, March 17, 2022, at Georgia Tech in . Lia is always welcome to train with us; the mens and womens swimming teams have always trained together with the same head coach. If she were to be eligible to compete against us, she could now break Penn, Ivy, and NCAA Womens Swimming records; feats she could never have done as a male athlete. lia thomas swimmer ranking before and after. Since at least the 1930s, the bodies of elite women athletes have been publicly scrutinized, leading athletic bodies like the International Olympic Committee to implement various forms of sex testing to determine if women were eligible to compete. Days later, over 300 current and former NCAA swimmers put their names on a supportive letter in response. The letter was organized by the organization Athlete Ally and Schuyler Bailar, a former Harvard swimmer who became the first transgender man to compete on a NCAA Division I mens team in 2015. She was worried about how coming . She eventually decided to change her gender and transition into a female. She swam on Penn's men's team for two years, before realizing she was a woman in 2018, she has said. [20][21], In March 2022, Thomas became the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I national championship in any sport, after winning the women's 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:33.24; Olympic silver medalist Emma Weyant was second with a time 1.75 seconds behind Thomas. You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. Sex and gender sparked a greater discussion about transgender athletes this year said, stumbling over words Over his words and i know they are talking before they meet freestyle! "[5][49] 3-time Olympic gold medalist Nancy Hogshead-Makar supported the participation of trans women, "so long as they can demonstrate that they have lost their sex-linked, male-puberty advantage prior to competition in the women's category. Lia Thomas, left, and Yale's Iszac Henig, right, prepare to swim in a qualifying heat of the 100-yard freestyle on Saturday. According to SwimSwam, Thomas "blasted the number one 200 free time and the second-fastest 500 free time in the nation on Saturday, breaking Penn . What did you think about Lia Thomas competing today as a swimmer in this competition? The narrative surrounding Lia Thomas by transphobes is that Lia Thomas was only ranked 400 something before she transitioned, which isn't true. During the last season Thomas competed as a member of the Penn men's team, which was 2018-19, she ranked 554th in the 200 freestyle, 65th in the 500 freestyle and 32nd in the 1650 freestyle. In a column on the matter for the conservative Daily Mail newspaper, Davis also incorrectly said that Thomas was 6 ft 4 in tall; she is actually 6 ft 1 in. victories in the 500-yard freestyle on Thursday, the 200-yard freestyle on Friday, passed laws to keep trans women and girls, from participating in girls and womens sports, anonymous letter purportedly written on behalf of 16 of her 40 Penn teammates, Ivy League wrote in a statement last month, NCAA required that transgender athletes have one year of hormone replacement therapy, the 20th-best woman tennis player in 1979, 16 unnamed Penn swimmers, who said Thomas had an unfair advantage, put their names on a supportive letter in response, been only a few Olympians who publicly identify as trans, 2017 literature review of studies published in the journal Sports Medicine, rules will be instituted in a phased approach over the coming seasons. Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas completes historic win, National Education Association Political Contributions. Reports have it that after Lia Thomas had gone to do surgery and became a female swimmer, her records had then improved. ", "Penn's Transgender Swimmer Lost to Yale's Transgender Swimmer in a Hotly Contested Women's Ivy League 100 meter Race", "Amid trans athlete debate, Penn's Lia Thomas loses to trans Yale swimmer", "Thomas first transgender athlete to win D-I title", "Thomas wins US collegiate swimming title", "Swimmer Lia Thomas becomes NCAA's first transgender D-I champion in any sport", "Why the data shows trans swimming champion Lia Thomas didn't have an unfair advantage", "Iszac Henig, Lia Thomas are All-Americans in women's 100-free", "Transgender swimmer finishes last in final college race", "What Lia Thomas Could Mean for Women's Elite Sports", "Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas speaks out about backlash, future plans to compete", "Penn swimmer Lia Thomas opens up about being the 1st transgender D-I athlete to win an NCAA title", "Transgender women swimmers barred from female competitions by Fina", "FINA vote restricts transgender athletes in women's competitions", "Transgender swimmers barred from women's events", "Lia Thomas barred from competing in women's events after swimming body's transgender vote", "FINA to restrict trans women from elite races", "Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas nominated for NCAA 2022 Woman of the Year Award", "Lia Thomas nominated for NCAA Woman of the Year, sparking praise and backlash", "Penn Parents Express Further Concerns Over Lia Thomas Competing On Women's Team", "Anti-trans panic comes to an Ivy League pool", "Official Cynthia Millen Quits, Protesting Lia Thomas' Swimming Participation", "A transgender college swimmer is shattering records, sparking a debate over fairness", "Lia Thomas succeeding from 'hard work' not because she's transgender, Penn Law groups say", "16 UPenn swimmers ask school not to challenge transgender policy that could block teammate Lia Thomas from competing", "Sixteen Penn swimmers say transgender teammate Lia Thomas should not be allowed to compete", "A trio of college swimmers show support for Lia Thomas", "Why I'm proud to support trans athletes like Lia Thomas", "Michael Phelps Weighs in on Lia Thomas Controversy", "Nancy Hogshead-Makar Explains Problems With Lia Thomas Situation", "Trans swimmer Lia Thomas winning NCAA title should spark legitimate debate, not hate", "Lia Thomas becomes 1st known transgender woman to win NCAA swimming title", "Protestors Against Lia Thomas Stand Outside & Attend Women's NCAA Championship", "17th-Place Finisher in 500 Reka Gyorgy Pens Letter to NCAA on Transgender Rules", "DeSantis rejects transgender swimmer Lia Thomas's NCAA victory", "Boebert, GOP lawmakers introduce resolution honoring second-place swimmer in Lia Thomas race", "Twitter reacts: Caitlyn Jenner plays women's golf but says trans girls should be banned from sports", "Caitlyn Jenner says trans swimmer Lia Thomas is not the 'rightful winner' of NCAA title", "Bucking Republican Trend, Indiana Governor Vetoes Transgender Sports Bill", "Louisiana Becomes Latest State To Ban Transgender Athletes In Schools", "A demand to define 'woman' injects gender politics into Jackson's confirmation hearings", "Trans athletes become campaign flashpoint for GOP", "Trans swimming champion Lia Thomas finishes college career", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lia_Thomas&oldid=1133875132, Short description is different from Wikidata, Wikipedia temporarily semi-protected biographies of living people, Pages using embedded infobox templates with the title parameter, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, 2022 NCAA Division I Women's Championship, This page was last edited on 15 January 2023, at 23:15. In the final for the 200 freestyle, Thomas placed fifth with a time of 1:43.50. [45][46][note 1] Another group of swimmers from Thomas's swim team made a separate statement supporting her competing on the women's team. Why its allowed is insane. I believe that we all should feel comfortable with who we are in our own skin, but I think sports should all be played on an even playing field, he said when asked about Thomas. At the time, her name was Will Thomas, and she used to compete in male swimming competitions. In that interview, she nodded in the direction of the controversy but did not engage. [32], In June 2022, the International Swimming Federation (FINA), an organization that administers international aquatic sports competitions, voted to bar all transgender athletes from competing in professional women's swimming, with the exception of athletes who "can establish to FINA's comfortable satisfaction that they have not experienced any part of male puberty beyond Tanner Stage 2 (of puberty) or before age 12, whichever is later", barring Thomas from competing in the women's competition at the 2024 Paris Olympics as she had planned. Her hair nestled alongside the medal around her neck as a blue University of Pennsylvania jacket hung from her broad swimmers shoulders. [33][34][35][36] In response to the decision, Thomas said: "The new FINA release is deeply upsetting. Thomas is ranked 36th among female college swimmers in the United States for the 20212022 season and 46th among women swimmers nationally. Tuesday, USA Swimming released new Athlete Inclusion Procedures shortly after the NCAA acknowledged that each sport should determine how fairness and inclusion were to be accomplished. Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, who made headlinesafter winningan NCAA Division I national championship, responded tocritics who say that she gained an unfair advantage competing against women. But it's it's it's it's hard. It has often felt like Penn, our school, our league, and the NCAA did not support us. Thomas' performance inside of the pool has sparked a greater discussion about transgender athletes this year. Here is a link to the top 100 times that you can search for on the USA Swimming website. [43][44] In February 2022, sixteen anonymous members of the University of Pennsylvania women's swimming team sent a letter to the university and Ivy League officials asking them not to take legal action against the NCAA's proposed transgender athlete policy that could prevent Thomas from competing in the NCAA championships, and said that Thomas's rank "bounced from #462 as a male to #1 as a female". NCAA's 'sport-by-sport approach to transgender participation' stirs debate. MISSION VIEJO, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 10: A view of a USA Swimming flag on Day Three of the TYR Pro Swim Series at Mission Viejo at Marguerite Aquatics Center on April 10, 2021 in Mission Viejo, California. The three-time gold medalist swimmer, civil rights lawyer and CEO of the non-profit advocacy group Champion Women has become a spokesperson of sorts for frustrated Penn swimmers and their parents. "It's no different than a cis (cisgender) woman taking a spot on a travel team or a scholarship. Reka Gyorgy argued in the letter that the participation of Lia Thomas, the transgender University of Pennsylvania swimmer, effectively . Source: Vimbuzz.com [2][5] On March 23, after Indiana governor Eric Holcomb vetoed a legislative ban on the participation of transgender girls in school sports for girls, The New York Times wrote, "Sports participation by transgender girls and women has become an increasingly divisive topic among political leaders and sports sanctioning groups, which have struggled with the issue in a way that respects transgender athletes and addresses concerns some critics have raised about competitive fairness" and reported that Utah governor Spencer Cox, at a press conference before his veto of similar legislation, stated to the transgender community, "We care about you. Nancy Hogshead-Makar sees eligibility rules as vital to the continued success of womens sports. Its amazing how self-righteous people in favor of that issue become (making sure, of course, to throw in the appropriate PC terms like cisgender and the like, as though they actually mean something) when scolding others, and yet immediately start yelling about how unfair it is to have this man (which he is, medically and genetically whats the phrase? Your email address will not be published. Transitioning to get an advantage is not something that ever factors into our decisions.. This is deadnaming and disrespectful. Meet Lia . The action you just performed triggered the security solution. Beginning in 2021, she became part of the public debate about transgender women in sports. [4] In 2017, she started attending the University of Pennsylvania. But its its its its hard. This record-breaking year for anti-transgender legislation would affect minors the most. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. The crowd of family and friends cheered politely, and Thomas posed for photos with Penn teammates and shook the hands of her closest competitors. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Sterling, VA 20164 In addition, over 300 current and former swimmers, collegiate and elite, signed their names to an open letter defending her ability to compete. [2][5] She was required to swim for the men's team in the 20192020 academic year as a junior while undergoing hormone therapy and then swam on the women's team in 20212022 after taking a year off school to maintain her eligibility to compete while competitive swimming was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 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