University of Pennsylvania transgender swimmer Lia Thomas has been smashing records in the pool this season. But now one teammate is speaking out.
Thomas — formerly known as Will Thomas — swam for the men’s swimming team for three years before joining the women’s program this year.
In November, Thomas smashed the record in the 200 free time and the second-fastest 500 free time, with both times breaking Penn program records.
Over the weekend, Thomas won the 1650 free by a whopping 38 seconds, the 500 free by 12 seconds, and the 200 free by seven seconds.
Thomas’ participation in women’s athletics has drawn the ire of many who see Thomas’ massive victories as unfair. As reported by OutKick, this includes one of Thomas’ female teammates.
According to OutKick, the teammate fears that she will not be able to find employment after college if she shares her honest opinion, choosing instead to remain anonymous as she revealed friction within the team due to Thomas’ presence.
“Pretty much everyone individually has spoken to our coaches about not liking this. Our coach [Mike Schnur] just really likes winning. He’s like most coaches. I think secretly everyone just knows it’s the wrong thing to do,” the female Penn swimmer said during a phone interview.
“When the whole team is together, we have to be like, ‘Oh my gosh, go Lia, that’s great, you’re amazing.’ It’s very fake,” she added.
As reported by The Daily Wire, “In defending its position that transgender athletes be allowed to compete on teams not matching their biological sex at birth, the NCAA claims:
Many people may have a stereotype that all transgender women are unusually tall and have large bones and muscles. But that is not true. A male-to-female transgender woman may be small and slight, even if she is not on hormone blockers or taking estrogen. It is important not to overgeneralize. The assumption that all male-bodied people are taller, stronger, and more highly skilled in a sport than all female-bodied people is not accurate.
The anonymous swimmer referenced Thomas’ times when swimming for the men’s team, highlighting that those times would break seven-time gold medal Olympic champion Katie Ledecky’s college times.
“The Ivy League is not a fast league for swimming, so that’s why it’s particularly ridiculous that we could potentially have an NCAA champion. That’s unheard of coming from the Ivy League,” Thomas’ teammate explained.
“On paper, if Lia Thomas gets back down to Will Thomas’ best times, those numbers are female world records. Faster than all the times Katie Ledecky went in college. Faster than any other Olympian you can think of. His times in three events are [female] world records.”
The NCAA stipulates:
A trans female (MTF) student-athlete being treated with testosterone suppression medication for Gender Identity Disorder or gender dysphoria and/or Transsexualism, for the purposes of NCAA competition may continue to compete on a men’s team but may not compete on a women’s team without changing it to a mixed team status until completing one calendar year of testosterone suppression treatment.
“When I have kids, I kinda hope they’re all boys because if I have any girls that want to play sports in college, good luck. [Their opponents] are all going to be biological men saying that they’re women,” Thomas’ teammate told OutKick. “Right now we have one, but what if we had three on the team? There’d be three less girls competing.”
Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers, and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to [email protected].