The currently most famous swimmer in the world is not an Olympic champion. She has no world record or crown and has never swum for her country, let alone a national championship.
Her name is Lia Thomas, a 22-year-old from Texas who is a fifth-year student at the University of Pennsylvania. On Friday (AEDT), she became the first transgender swimmer to win an NCAA Division 1 swimming title, the pinnacle of US varsity sport, amid heated debate about the eligibility, fairness and future rules for transient athletes.
Pennsylvania’s Lia Thomas in NCAA competition.Credit:(` Photo/John Bazemore
A favorite in the 500-yard freestyle, Thomas started the field to be the first to hit the wall, as she has done all season in competitions against other Ivy League varsities. Her time of 4:33.24 was nearly two seconds ahead of second-place finisher Emma Weyant, a silver medalist in the 400-meter individual medley at the Tokyo Olympics.
To put her victory in perspective, that time is a long way behind American swimming legend Katie Ledecky’s 4:24.06. But Thomas’ rapid rise from mediocre male swimmer to a dominant force in elite collegiate-level female freestyle has fractured large swathes of the sport, divided commentators and prompted governing bodies like FINA to scramble to enact appropriate guidelines that would protect the complex gaps between inclusion and inclusion bridge a level playing field.
Thomas has become a major headline figure in the US, with a lengthy Sports Illustrated profile tracing her journey from a swimmer on the Penn men’s team from 2018-2020, through hormone therapy and her return as a woman in 2021.
“I just want to show trans kids and younger trans athletes that they are not alone,” she told the magazine. “They don’t have to choose between who they are and the sport they love.”
Along the way she has garnered a ton of support with her university, the Ivy League, transgender advocacy groups and hundreds of other and former swimmers supporting her right to compete in women’s races.
Others have pushed back hard, arguing that athletes who have lived most of their lives as biological males have inherent advantages over their female rivals. In this case, they cite their big hands, manly strength, and a suggested increased aerobic capacity.
Comments are closed.