As a joke, the NCAA admitted: “We made a mistake”, Lia Thomas should not have received any honor
A Penn teammate of Lia Thomas has spoken out about the fairness of transgender swimming, specifically Thomas.
The swimmer spoke to News Nation on the condition of anonymity and her on-air interview had her likeness and voice changed to keep that anonymity since Penn and the Ivy League have kept their athletes from speaking about the controversy surrounding Lia Thomas.
Thomas formerly competed as a member of Penn’s men’s squad for three years, before transitioning to a woman during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the beginning of the 2021-22 season, Thomas started to compete for the Penn women’s team, having met the NCAA’s transgender-participation condition of one year of hormone-suppressant therapy. That requirement, which was based on outdated science, has since been changed. The NCAA initially indicated it would follow USA Swimming guidelines for transgender inclusion, but when the governing body for the sport in the United States announced stringent parameters, the NCAA balked.
A number of parents of Penn swimmers have spoken out about this issue, as well as former and a few current swimmers. But few teammates have gone on the record and the most comprehensive has been this News Nation interview.
Thomas’ teammate reiterated, and the article did as well, that she supports Lia Thomas’ transition, but feels that her competing in women’s swimming is “unfair.”
“The first word that comes to my mind is insane,” the swimmer told NewsNation. “I feel like it’s something that’s so basic that people have just somehow managed to twist and make (it) way more complicated than it should have ever been.
“It is not like people are discriminating against Lia and not allowing her to swim. She identified as a woman and competed on the men’s team. That was the choice she was making. Then to compete with the women’s team. That is something that cisgender women are not choosing. There are categories for a reason. They make sense and ensure fairness. … The NCAA has not said anything, and by not saying anything, they are discriminating against cisgender women.”
Watch the full interview here
Another issue that was broached in the interview was the locker room situation with Thomas, who although she has transitioned to being female hormonally and identified as a woman, still has male body parts, according to the report.
“It is definitely uncomfortable and has been expressed to our coach and members of the athletic department that people are uncomfortable with it,” the teammate said. “We were basically told to, ‘suck it up.’”
Lia Thomas has the top seed at the women’s NCAA Championships in the 500 freestyle and 200 freestyle.
“I think we’re going to look at the people who are making these decisions and were in charge and kind of laugh at them,” she said. “And then just ask, ‘What were you doing? You had the power to change that and you chose not to. You’re kind of a coward for that.’”
