A new article by the editor-in-chief of Swimming World magazine compared the advantage Lia Thomas has over NCAA women’s swimmers with doping, as the controversy over the biological male competing in women’s swimming events continues.
John Lohn called on the NCAA to act “quickly” in the case to protect the “fairness” of women in collegiate swimming.
Thomas set school records at Penn for the 200-meter freestyle and 500-meter freestyle on November 20.
“Now, the NCAA needs to act, and it needs to act quickly. This scenario – with the effects of doping – cannot linger. For the good of the sport, and for fairness to those competing as biological women, a ruling must come down soon,” Lohn wrote.
Without NCAA Action, the Effects of Lia Thomas Situation Are Akin to Doping – https://t.co/L09Ex95SwB pic.twitter.com/RS7qu3MCpR
— Swimming World (@SwimmingWorld) December 21, 2021
Lohn clearly specified he was not accusing Thomas of doping. Instead, he argued the effects of being born as a biological male offered similar advantages (emphasis original):
The effects of being born a biological male, as they relate to the sport of swimming, offer Thomas a clear-cut edge over the biological females against whom she is competing. She is stronger. It is that simple. And this strength is beneficial to her stroke, on turns and to her endurance. Doping has the same effect.
Lohn concluded the article with strong words for leaders to intervene, saying, “If it doesn’t, the NCAA just doesn’t care.”
In a previous article for the publication, Lohn called on the NCAA to keep Thomas from competing in the March championships.
Thomas should not be on the starting blocks in Atlanta in March. If she does race, it would be an indisputably unfair setting. To those she would race in the 200 freestyle. To her opposition in the 500 free. To the women she would battle in the 1650 freestyle.
According to OutKick, an anonymous teammate of Thomas criticized the situation.
“Pretty much everyone individually has spoken to our coaches about not liking this,” the female swimmer said. “Our coach just really likes winning. He’s like most coaches. I think secretly everyone just knows it’s the wrong thing to do.”
The Daily Wire previously reported:
In early December, Lia Thomas, the biological man swimming on the University of Pennsylvania’s women’s swim team, utterly crushed the women competing with Thomas at the University of Akron’s Zippy Invitational, winning the 1650 free by a gargantuan 38 seconds ahead of the young woman finishing second, winning the 500 free by a whopping twelve seconds ahead of the woman finishing second, and winning the 200 free by a still-huge seven seconds, setting new Penn records along with meet and pool records.
Now video has surfaced of Thomas winning the 1650 free, showing how lopsided the race was with Thomas, who swam competitively for the men’s team for three years before switching to the women’s team, leaving female swimmers looking as if they were not even in the same race.
Just to show you how absurd this is. Here’s the trans swimmer “Lia” Thomas crushing all of the female competitors by 40 seconds. This is what that looks like in real time. A total farce.
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) December 15, 2021