Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, center, with teammates during warmup laps before a meet with Harvard on Saturday, Jan. Lia Thomas, 22, set new U.S. swimming records at the Zippy Invitational in Akron, Ohio over the weekend, according to the university. One man exclaimed "cheater" seconds before a 500Y race began, in a dig at the University of Pennsylvania swimmer. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. Thomas finished first in the race in Atlanta on Thursday, with her time of 4. Henig, who is transitioning to male but hasn't begun hormone . [54] On March 22, Florida governor Ron DeSantis issued a proclamation declaring second-place finisher Emma Weyant the "rightful winner" of the 2022 NCAA Division 1 Women's 500-yard Freestyle,[55] although he does not have the authority to select the winner of the NCAA championship. She is now an NCAA top fighter in all of those events if she competes in them at the collegiate championships. Lia Thomas took control in the final 100 yards of the 500-yard freestyle to make history Thursday as the first transgender woman to win an NCAA "I didn't have a whole lot of expectation for this meet," said Thomas, a former male swimmer for Penn State. Thomas spent three seasons on Penn's men's swimming team before completing her transition in 2020 and joining the women's squad this year. 2017. All Rights Reserved. Lia Thomas, a senior at the University of Pennsylvania . Her face has been prominently featured on Fox News and right-wing news sites critical of societys changing views on sex and gender. She has some people hearing the "Jaws" theme in their head because she's trans and swims fast. So people that claim otherwise are either intentionally malicious or just plain ignorant. She'll probably be a favorite at the NCAA championships in March, even as people inside and outside the sport debate her place on the pool deck. After a few seconds of trying and horrendous pain, I finally yelled for help, and the lifeguard on duty was quickly. Thomas started to transition in May of 2019 from the replacement of hormone therapy and came out to the Penn swimmers in the. The debate has also reached the political benches. Her times in the 200 and the 500 in particular set pool and meet records, qualified her for the NCAA championships, and remain the best womens time in the nation this season. University of Pennsylvania swimmer and newly anointed national champion Lia Thomas has found herself at the center of America's debate over transgender One day after finishing third behind Thomas and Virginia Cavaliers star Emma Weyant, Sullivan penned an op-ed for Newsweek, in. Competing in her 40s, she rose to become the 20th-best woman tennis player in 1979. 16.1k Likes, 1,435 Comments - NPR (@npr) on Instagram: "University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas is a three-time Ivy League champion. Source: Vimbuzz.com University of Pennsylvania. Performance & security by Cloudflare. "I will not stop bringing these actual facts into the light or be bullied into silence. 2023 Cable News Network. Lia Thomas ended an intense week of scrutiny with a hug. " Reporter: You're a Virginia Tech swimmer. Lia Thomas, whose real name is William, took a huge lead in the second half of the race and finished in 4 minutes, 37.32 seconds, which is three seconds better than his personal best and three-tenths of a second faster than the pool record. Lia Thomas's swimmer profile, including times, results, and more. The issue of transgender women competing in college swimming contests is dividing the sporting world, with some pundits saying transgender athletes competing against cisgender women is unfair and damaging competitiveness in the sport due to "biological advantages." 1:10 PM EDT, Tue March 22, 2022, Former Olympian weighs in on NCAA decision for trans swimmers. He pointed out that trans people are actually underrepresented in sports. In that interview, she nodded in the direction of the controversy but did not engage. Choose Color style The Ivy League reaffirms its unwavering commitment to providing an inclusive environment for all student-athletes while condemning transphobia and discrimination in any form, the Ivy League wrote in a statement last month. University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, center, qualified for Thursday's 500-yard final at the Washington (AFP) - Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas was the fastest qualifier for Thursday's 500-yard freestyle final at the US collegiate women's swimming and diving championships in Atlanta. [5] In March, roughly 50 protesters and counter-protesters gathered outside the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center when Thomas swam in the NCAA Division I national championship. "[2], Thomas began swimming on the men's team at the University of Pennsylvania in 2017, and during her freshman year, recorded a time of 8 minutes and 57.55 seconds in the 1,000-yard freestyle that ranked as the sixth-fastest national men's time, as well as 500-yard freestyle and 1,650-yard freestyle times ranked within the national top 100. [19], In a race during January 2022 at a meet against UPenn's Ivy League rival Yale, Thomas finished in 6th place in the 100m freestyle race, losing to four cisgender women and Iszac Henig, a transgender man, who transitioned without hormone therapy. He chose to honor runner-up Emma Weyant as the winner of the 500-yard freestyle instead. Transgender college swimmer Lia Thomas has spoken out about the anti-trans hostility she has faced as an athlete. [25] Thomas was 9.18 seconds short of Katie Ledecky's NCAA record of 4:24.06. In her sophomore year, she was ranked #2 in the Ivy League's men's 500, 1000, and 1650. I immediately reacted and attempted to stretch the legbut my body just wasn't responding. Last week, a Republican Senate candidate in Missouri featured Thomas in a campaign ad and asserted that Womens sports are for women, not men pretending to be women, a transphobic trope belittling trans women. I was struggling, my mental health was not very good. British Olympic swimmer and silver medallist Sharron Davies also argued Thomas shouldn't be allowed to compete in female swimming. Rankings. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. At the time, the NCAA required that transgender athletes have one year of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to be cleared to participate. Conservative Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, In a column on the matter for the conservative, Gutting IRS Will Help Wealthy Avoid More Taxes | Opinion, Eliminating Income Tax Means More Money for Americans | Opinion. Joe Biden probably thought his executive order last week, Advancing Equality for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Individuals, was a winner twice over. Yet the improvements in the pool belied internal turmoil. The new rule threatened to make Thomas ineligible to compete at NCAA championships in March. They have remained in contact, though he declined to go into detail on their conversations. "And we're talking about, this person's gonna swim on every relay going forward at championship meets, is going to take the position of a woman on a Thomas who competed for three years on the University of Pennsylvania Men's Swim Team has dominated women's collegiate swimming. The data suggests that while Thomas was the fastest swimmer in that category this season, she actually would have been the fastest swimmer in only one of the last 10 seasons. Previously, Lia competed for the school's men's team as Will Thomas for 3 years before joining in a women's team. Lia Thomas. [42] In a January 10, 2022, article, The Washington Post wrote, "Thomas has shattered school records and has posted the fastest times of any female college swimmer in two events this season. Lia Thomas has become the first transgender swimmer to win an NCAA championship after she blitzed her rivals to win the 500-yard freestyle on Thursday, but the victory has again initiated a debate as to the Thomas' right to compete against biologically-born women. For over a decade, the NCAA has required transgender women to be on testosterone suppression treatment for a year before they are allowed to compete on the womens team. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images). Thomas's best time in the 2021/2022 season was 04:33.24. Lia Thomas, the transgender swimmer at the University of Pennsylvania, won the NCAA championships in the 500-yard race on Thursday. As they denounced and misgendered Thomas, counter-protesters . Davies revealed on Twitter on Wednesday that she had received several threats after sharing her opinion. Still, she said she was in a better head space after coming out. Thomas began swimming on the men's team at the University of Pennsylvania in 2017, and during her freshman year, recorded a time of 8 minutes and 57.55 seconds in the 1,000-yard freestyle that ranked as the sixth-fastest national men's time, as well as 500-yard freestyle and 1,650-yard freestyle times ranked within the national top 100. University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas is a three-time Ivy League champion. Ranking: Thomas is ranked 36th among female college swimmers in the United States for the 2021-2022 season and 46th among women swimmers nationally. One spectator spoke out as transgender college swimmer Lia Thomas prepared to crush his female competitors during an NCAA finals qualifier event on Thursday. [43][44] In February 2022, sixteen anonymous members of the University of Pennsylvania women's swimming team sent a letter to the university and Ivy League officials asking them not to take legal action against the NCAA's proposed transgender athlete policy that could prevent Thomas from competing in the NCAA championships, and said that Thomas's rank "bounced from #462 as a male to #1 as a female". [4][5][11] Thomas has followed all of the gender-related policies to be eligible to compete as a woman in NCAA swimming. In the 1990s, both the International Association of Athletics Federations and the IOC ended mandatory sex testing but continued to conduct medical evaluations on a case-by-case basis. Some wonder, though, how long women will have separate sports if men can take hormones for a year and then dominate their teammates based. 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lia thomas swimmer ranking before and after