Penn Swimmer Lia Thomas, a biological male who identifies as female, crushed the competition on Thursday, taking first in the NCAA Women’s Swimming Championship 500 yard freestyle.
Following the win, Thomas, who competed against males before identifying as female, spoke to a reporter from ESPN, discussing the “spotlight” the swimmer is under.
“Lia, how did that performance measure up to your expectations coming into this meet tonight?” the reported asked Thomas.
“I didn’t have a whole lot of expectations for this meet, I was just happy to be here, trying to race and compete as best as I could,” Thomas answered.
“You’ve undoubtedly been under the spotlight over the past few months, how have you been dealing with that, and reasoning with everything?” the reporter followed up.
“I try to ignore it as much as a I can,” Thomas said, “I try to focus on my swimming, what I need to do to get ready for my races, and just try to block out everything else.”
“What did that race mean to you?” the reporter asked.
“It means the world to be here, be with my two best friends and teammates, and be able to compete,” Thomas ended the interview.
WATCH:
“It means the world to be here.”
Lia Thomas spoke about swimming in the NCAA women's championships. pic.twitter.com/aP0afVA0KE
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 18, 2022
As reported by The Daily Wire, Thomas was cheered on while destroying the biologically female competition:
Onlookers cheered Thursday evening as a biological man who identifies as a transgender woman annihilated female competitors in a collegiate race.
University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas clocked in at 4:33:24, finishing first in the NCAA Women’s Swimming Championship 500 yard freestyle.
The University of Virginia’s Emma Weyant, a freshman, finished second with 4 minutes 34 seconds and 99 milliseconds, dropping 2 seconds and 26 milliseconds from her previous time.
Erica Sullivan, a freshman from the University of Texas, finished third at 4 minutes, 35 seconds, and 92 milliseconds.
Earlier this week, a mother of a female swimmer in the Ivy League spoke out in an explosive video condemning those in charge for allowing Thomas to compete against females.
The mother, who says her daughter has personally competed against Thomas, complained that a “full-grown male” is now being allowed to “take” from female competitors and break their hard-earned records. She also claimed her daughter and other biologically female swimmers were warned by higher-ups not to speak about the transgender issue.
“Holy cow, we’re going to talk about a male swimmer — a full-grown male — attempting to take down female icon records, and taking a spot on an Ivy team from one of the Penn swimmers, who have rightfully deserved it,” she told Independent Women’s Forum, according to the Post Millennial. “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 travel team, is going to take a space in every finals.”
Independent Women’s Forum identified the woman as “Margaret,” captioning the video: “Margaret’s* daughter is a swimmer in the Ivy League who’s been forced to compete all season against XY athlete Will ‘Lia’ Thomas. Thomas — who competed for three years on the University of Pennsylvania Men’s Swim Team — has dominated women’s collegiate swimming competitions this season and broken numerous female legacy records.”
Related: Biologically Male Swimmer Annihilates Female Competitors In 500 Free