Shortly after becoming the first transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I national championship, former University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas pushed back on some of the criticism she received during the 2021-22 season in an exclusive interview with ABC News and ESPN.
Up until now, Thomas had declined all interview requests during the NCAA swimming and diving championships. However, she found herself at the center of a national debate over who gets to compete in women’s sports.
“The biggest misconception, I think, is the reason I transitioned,” Thomas said. “People will say, ‘Oh, she just transitioned so she would have an advantage, so she could win.’ I transitioned to be happy, to be true to myself.”
Thomas initially swam on the Penn men’s swimming team for three seasons. She then joined the women’s team after a gap year when the Ivy League canceled the 2020-21 season for all sports because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Thomas made national headlines after her performance at the Zippy Invitational in Akron, Ohio, in December 2021, when she posted the nation’s fastest times in the 200- and 500-yard freestyle. At the NCAA swimming and diving championships in March, Thomas won the 500 freestyle, and she placed fifth and eighth in the 200 and 100 freestyle.
Legislators introduced bills designed to restrict transgender athletes’ ability to compete in sports, sometimes impacting athletes starting in elementary school. The bills, they said, were needed to protect the sanctity of women’s sports. However, Thomas is in disagreeance.
“Trans women competing in women’s sports does not threaten women’s sports as a whole,” Thomas said. “Trans women are a very small minority of all athletes. The NCAA rules regarding trans women competing in women’s sports have been around for 10-plus years. And we haven’t seen any massive wave of trans women dominating.” She added, “If you say, like, you can compete, but you can’t score or you’re in an extra lane nine, that’s very othering towards trans people,” Thomas said. “And it is not offering them the same level of respect and opportunity to play and to compete.”
She said it’s very imperative for folks to remember that transgender women are women too.
“It’s no different than a cis woman taking a spot on a travel team or a scholarship. It is a part of athletics, where people are competing against each other. It’s not taking away opportunities from cis women, really. Trans women are women, so it’s still a woman who is getting that scholarship or that opportunity.”
