Trans swimmer’s US victory is bittersweet
Fellow medallists register their protest on podium after Lia Thomas’s historic elite women’s event win
‘I try to ignore it as much as I can. I try to focus on my swimming, what I need to do to get ready for my races. And just try to block out everything else’
THREE college swimmers who were beaten by a transgender athlete posed together on a single podium step, adding to the controversy over her eligibility to compete in elite women’s competitions.
Lia Thomas, 22, made history on Thursday night to become the first transgender woman to win a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I title.
Her victory in the 500-yard freestyle in Atlanta received a mixed reaction with some spectators booing after she beat a Tokyo Olympic medallist into third. By contrast, second-placed Emma Weyant received loud cheers from the crowd, with some on social media declaring the University of Virginia swimmer the “real winner”.
Thomas, who competed on the University of Pennsylvania’s men’s team for three years before transitioning, beat Weyant by 1.75 seconds with a time of four minutes and 33.24 seconds.
Since moving to compete in women’s competitions, Thomas has smashed records and become a focal point in the debate over the eligibility of trans women to compete in elite women’s sports.
Her presence at the NCAA competition, the highest-profile event in American college swimming, prompted protests from self-proclaimed women’s rights protesters in Atlanta.
“There is every feasible way that it is an act of grave cowardice by the NCAA,” Kellie-jay Keen, head of the organisation Standing for Women, told Fox News.
Counter-protesters also attended the event to show support for Thomas and rail against transphobia.
During the NCAA’S ceremony, second-placed Weyant was photographed sharing a podium step with third-placed Erica Sullivan, a silver medallist at last year’s Tokyo Olympics, and fourthplaced Brooke Forde. The image of the three athletes clutching their trophies at a distance from Thomas was widely circulated online by commentators who claim the trans athlete holds an unfair advantage over her rivals.
“Round of applause for Emma Weyant, the UVA swimmer who placed second in the 500yd freestyle tonight, behind Lia Thomas,” tweeted Angela Morabito, a former Trump administration official.
Sharron Davies, the former British Olympic silver medallist, and a vocal critic of transgender athletes, later called the result an “injustice”.
Asked about the reaction to her win on Thursday, Thomas replied: “I try to ignore it as much as I can. I try to focus on my swimming, what I need to do to get ready for my races. And just try to block out everything else,” she told ESPN.
Thomas’s performances have propelled her to the fore of a heated debate in the US over how to balance the rights of trans athletes against claims those who went through puberty as males hold an unfair advantage.
The NCAA requires transwomen athletes to have one year of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to be cleared to participate in women’s sports.
Thomas said she started HRT in May 2019 and came out as trans later that year. The NCAA has approved her participation
in the women’s events. However, it has since adopted a set of stricter guidelines that require elite trans women athletes to have three years of HRT and to prove to a panel of medical experts that they do not have an unfair advantage.
Those rules will be instituted in phases over the coming seasons.