Transgendered swimmer Lia Thomas is smashing records and trouncing the competition this season, raising uneasy protests by those who object to a female swimmer who competed as a male for the previous two years now competing as a woman.
“Before her transition,” reported the New York Post, “Thomas competed for two full seasons at Penn as a man. NCAA rules mandate at least one year of testosterone suppression treatment to be eligible to compete as a woman.”
And Lia Thomas now holds the US women’s record times in both the 200yd and the 500yd freestyle.
Imagine, accomplishing all of that in only her second swimming competition! How DOES she do it??https://t.co/aBso3Ddq4P
— ♀️Jennifer Gingrich (@fem_mb) December 7, 2021
One group, Women Sports for Women, said that Thomas competing as a female was the same as abusing women.
“The male abuser of women’s sports breaking women’s records. The abuse is coming for swimming!,” the group said about Thomas.
“And Lia Thomas now holds the US women’s record times in both the 200yd and the 500yd freestyle,” tweeted Jennifer Gingrich sarcastically, while showing photos of Thomas as both a man and a woman.
“Imagine, accomplishing all of that in only her second swimming competition! How DOES she do it??” Gingrich added.
“Critics say trans female athletes can still have considerable advantages over their cisgender female rivals,” noted the U.K.’s Daily Mail about Thomas, “because of height and weight advantages they may retain even after hormone treatment.”
“I’ve been a swimmer since I was five years old,” Thomas said. “The process of coming out as being trans and continuing to swim was a lot of uncertainty and unknown around an area that’s usually really solid.
“Realizing I was trans threw that into question,” Thomas added. “Was I going to keep swimming? What did that look like?”
It looks like a record setter, but to most it feels like something else.
“This should outrage every person who’s ever advocated for women in athletics,” wrote Jessica Cole.
