Lia Thomas’ became the first transgender to win 100 metres of the 500-yard freestyle on Thursday an NCAA swimming title.
In the NCAA women’s swimming and diving championships, Thomas, a senior at the University of Pennsylvania and the top seed, set a season-best time of 4 minutes, 33.24 seconds.
Inclusion Of Trans Women In Sports
The participation of the transgender swimmer caused discussion even inside the sport. Protesters were present outside the Georgia Tech building, and some of them carried banners with the words “Save Women’s Sports” on them.
Swimmer Lia Thomas Penn Biography, Age, Height, Parents, Story, Interview, Swimming Video
American swimmer Lia Catherine Thomas, born in 1998 or 1999, is a current University of Pennsylvania student and is 22 years old. Sports Illustrated dubbed Thomas “America’s most contentious athlete” in 2021 and CNN dubbed her “the face of the debate on transgender women in sports” in 2022 due to her athletic success as a trans woman.
Thomas was raised in Austin, Texas, and has an elder brother. Thomas took up swimming when he was five years old. She stands 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighs 60 kilogrammes. Due of the obvious biological advantage she has over the other swimmers, her parents have publicly asked that she not be permitted to compete in women’s swimming events.
The Auburn swimmer’s father remarked, “They asked how he felt about winning, when actually, how did the rest of the women feel about having to cope with this, knowing they have to swim against him.”
“I believe that everyone involved must act civilly. He goes by Will Thomas. He is a human, and we should respect that as well as his choices in life, but this isn’t the appropriate setting for them, he added.
Penn’s Lia Thomas won the 500-yard freestyle at the NCAA women’s swimming and diving championships.
Thomas becomes the first known transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I championship in any sport.
Full story from @katie_barnes3: https://t.co/mYzU5uBDpS pic.twitter.com/zgmIEgKO5x
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 17, 2022
A Virginia Tech swimmer competing in this year’s NCAA championship explains how Lia Thomas’s victory against her teammate caused her to cry.
Transgender Status And Controversies
Beginning in 2021, conservative media primarily covered Thomas heavily. Famous sports figures and the general public started commenting on and writing about her in January 2022. The Washington Post said that Thomas was “shattering records.”
Cynthia Millen, a 30-year USA Swimming official, announced her resignation in December 2021, hoping that other athletes would concur that Thomas has an unfair competitive edge over cisgender competition. Although Thomas was ranked 462 as a male swimmer, sixteen anonymous members of the University of Pennsylvania women’s swimming team wrote to university and Ivy League officials to ask them not to file a lawsuit against the NCAA’s new transgender athlete policy, which could prevent Thomas from competing in the NCAA championships.
