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<p class="mol-para-with-font">An Ivy League women&#8217;s All-American swimmer went from pool shark to scrub after identifying as  male and joining the men&#8217;s team, the opposite of the switch made by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lia-thomas-nominated-by-upenn-rejected-by-ivy-league-as-ncaa-woman-of-the-year/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lia Thomas</a>.</p>
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<p class="mol-para-with-font">Iszac Henig, a senior on the Yale men’s swim team, placed 79<sup>th</sup> out of 83 at a men’s meet in November after earning All-American plaudits as a junior on the school’s women’s team. But in an op-ed column Henig wrote for the New York Times this week, the 22-year-old athlete, whose breasts were removed, says living as a man makes it all worthwhile.</p>
<p>&#8220;I Chose to Compete as My True, Trans Self. I Win Less, but I Live More,&#8221; read the headline of Henig&#8217;s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/05/opinion/trans-athlete-swimming.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New York Times article</a>.</p>
<p>In the article, Henig shrugs off the fall from dominance.</p>
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<p class="mol-para-with-font">“I wasn&#8217;t the slowest guy in any of my events, but I&#8217;m not as successful in the sport as I was on the women&#8217;s team,” wrote Henig, who bested a one-armed swimmer and three others who specialize in other strokes in November.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">That&#39;s exactly what is happening. Here is trans men Iszac Henig who competed in the women&#39;s category. <a href="https://t.co/22FuvUuSum">pic.twitter.com/22FuvUuSum</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Fernanda (@Fernand18962391) <a href="https://twitter.com/Fernand18962391/status/1512435952974807041?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 8, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
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<p class="mol-para-with-font">Henig, who hails from Menlo Park, California, was a high school phenom and even tried out for the 2016 Olympics long before having a double mastectomy and identifying as a man. As a sophomore at Yale, Henig was the top swimmer on the women’s team.</p>
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<p class="mol-para-with-font">Thomas, on the other hand, was a mediocre competitor on the University of Pennsylvania men’s team before identifying as a female and smashing records while representing the school’s women’s team. Several of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/i-just-want-change-outspoken-lia-thomas-competitor-slams-leftist-media-for-ignoring-her-story/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Thomas’s teammates and rivals complained</a> that Thomas’s biological advantages made competitions unfair.</p>
<p>Thomas and Henig actually competed against each other early last year, after Henig began identifying as a male but before Henig switched over to the men&#8217;s team. <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/01/08/lia-thomas-defeated-by-fellow-transgender-swimmer-iszac-henig/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Henig bested Thomas</a> in both the 100- and 400-yard freestyle events.</p>
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<p class="mol-para-with-font">In the column for The New York Times, Henig acknowledged a longstanding attraction to women, but said being in the women’s locker room was always uncomfortable.</p>
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<p class="mol-para-with-font">“I thought that my unease came from worry that my sexuality made others uncomfortable,” Henig wrote. “I hadn’t yet considered that the real reason I felt so off was my sense of being in the wrong locker room.”</p>
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<p class="mol-para-with-font">Henig took the 2020-2021 year off from school in order to keep a year of NCAA eligibility and begin the transition.</p>
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<p class="mol-para-with-font">“I dived deeper into queerness, exploring the balance of masculinity and femininity, especially with presentation in clothing,” Henig wrote. “Through that I discovered binders, base-layer compression garments used to create a more traditionally masculine chest appearance.”</p>
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<p class="mol-para-with-font">Henig’s breasts were removed in early 2021. Upon returning to Yale, Henig, who had already been taking male hormones, was given the choice of competing as a woman or as a man. Henig initially chose to remain on the women’s team, but then joined the men’s team for the 2022-23 season.</p>
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<p class="mol-para-with-font">Going from star to also-ran is worth it for Henig, who is happy to compete against men.</p>
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<p class="mol-para-with-font">“I&#8217;m trying to connect with my teammates in new ways, to cheer loudly, to focus more on the excitement of the sport,” Henig wrote. “Competing and being challenged is the best part. It&#8217;s a different kind of fulfillment. And it&#8217;s pretty great to feel comfortable in the locker room every day.”</p>
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Iszac Henig

Trans Yale Swimming Star Goes From Shark To Scrub After Joining Men’s Team

Trans Yale Swimming Star Goes From Shark To Scrub After Joining Men's Team

Lia Thomas

Sports

Transgender Athletes

U.S.

Yale

<p style="font-weight: 400;">Riley Gaines, the University of Kentucky <a href="https://ukathletics.com/news/2022/07/14/riley-gaines-nominated-for-2022-ncaa-woman-of-the-year/">12-time NCAA All-America swimmer</a> on its women’s team who has forthrightly denounced men in women’s sports, endorsed Georgia GOP senatorial candidate Herschel Walker in a new ad noting Walker’s opponent, Raphael Warnock, voted down an amendment that would keep men out of women&#8217;s college sports.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">In the ad supporting Walker, Gaines introduces herself as a 12-time NCAA All-American.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">“For more than a decade, I worked so hard; 4 a.m. practices to be the best. But my senior year I was forced to compete against a biological male,” she states.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">“That’s unfair and wrong,” Walker declares.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">“A man won the swimming title that belonged to a woman. And Senator Warnock voted to let it happen,” Gaines notes as the screen flashes, “Raphael Warnock voted to allow biological men to compete in women’s college sports.”</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">“Warnock’s afraid to stand up for female athletes,” Walker pronounces.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">“Herschel Walker stands up for what’s right,” Gaines concludes.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">A new ad from <a href="https://twitter.com/HerschelWalker?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@HerschelWalker</a> stars Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines who was forced to compete in this year’s NCAA swimming championships against a man identifying as a woman. Watch it: <a href="https://t.co/CIEtHaZZJS">pic.twitter.com/CIEtHaZZJS</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) <a href="https://twitter.com/ClayTravis/status/1594760538159988764?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 21, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Gaines, who stands all of 5’5”, was infamously denied her fifth-place trophy at the NCAA championships last March when she was told she would have to hold the sixth-place trophy because biological male Lia Thomas, 6’1”, with whom she tied for fifth place, would be given the fifth-place trophy.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">“I just want you to know that we respect you and admire your swim so much, but we just want Lia to hold the fifth place trophy,” the man instructed Gaines, she recalled to <a href="applewebdata://197AB9FE-8726-4DFE-BBEA-549EA63D344A/v">The Daily Wire</a>.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">“The more I thought about it, the more it fired me up,” she said. “It&#8217;s almost like the NCAA is trying to save face by giving Lia the fifth place trophy. Who are we trying to protect here and who are we trying to fight for here?”</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">&#8220;I like to stay true to what I believe in, and I&#8217;m not someone who&#8217;s just going to back down from anything or agree with something I don&#8217;t agree with,&#8221; she said. &#8220;If this was something other athletes weren&#8217;t going to step up and speak up about, I guess I could be that person.&#8221;</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">“What I&#8217;m not OK with is that they were able to just turn their backs on all of the biological females, not even just in swimming, but in all NCAA sports, just to kind of appease a small minority,” she concluded.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Notably, Thomas, from the University of Pennsylvania’s women’s swim team, utterly crushed the female competition at the 2021 University of Akron&#8217;s Zippy Invitational — winning the 1650 free by a gargantuan 38 seconds ahead of the young woman finishing second. Thomas also won the 500 free by a whopping twelve seconds ahead of the woman who finished second, and won the 200 free by a still-huge seven seconds, setting new Penn records along with meet and pool records.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Video 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.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">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. </p>
<p> <a href="https://t.co/kAi9GgF5sj">pic.twitter.com/kAi9GgF5sj</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) <a href="https://twitter.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1470978594256130050?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 15, 2021</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Related:<a href="https://dailywire.com/news/i-left-there-with-no-trophy-ncaa-female-swimmer-who-tied-for-fifth-with-trans-athlete-says-officials-put-lia-thomas-ahead-of-her/">‘I Left There With No Trophy’: NCAA Female Swimmer Who Tied For Fifth With Trans Athlete Says Officials Put Lia Thomas Ahead Of Her</a></strong></p>


NCAA SWIMMING: MAR 18 Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships

NCCA Champion Swimmer Fighting Against Men In Women’s Sports Endorses Herschel Walker In New Ad

NCCA Champion Swimmer Fighting Against Men In Women's Sports Endorses Herschel Walker In New Ad

Elections

Herschel Walker

Politics

Raphael Warnock

Riley Gaines

Transgender

Women's sports

<p>Riley Gaines, one of the young women who competed against a biologically male athlete during the NCAA women&#8217;s swimming championships earlier this year, shut down rumors that she dodged a kiss from former President Donald Trump at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) over the weekend.</p>
<p>Gaines, a 12-time All-American and three-time Southeastern Conference champion, expressed gratitude in an Instagram post for the &#8220;once in a lifetime experience&#8221; of sharing &#8220;a stage with the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump.&#8221;</p>
<p>Trump had invited Gaines to join him on stage as he emphasized the importance of protecting the integrity of women&#8217;s sports.</p>
<p>&#8220;What an honor,&#8221; the University of Kentucky graduate said.</p>
<p>Gaines pointed to leftists&#8217; <a href="https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1556256626641887237?s=20&amp;t=xw-5-To7C0FZ5DBxmHAUfQ">insinuations</a> that she had dodged the former president&#8217;s greeting, describing them as a &#8220;prime example of the left media pushing propaganda to fit their narrative.&#8221;</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Trump calls swimmer Riley Gaines up on stage and tries to give her a kiss. She flinches and pulls away. <a href="https://t.co/zKSZMAEF2Y">pic.twitter.com/zKSZMAEF2Y</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) <a href="https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1556256626641887237?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 7, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>&#8220;In no way, shape, or form did I &#8216;dodge a kiss&#8217; from Trump nor was I uncomfortable on that stage with him at any point in time,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I slightly turned my head so I could hear what he was saying to me. Proof that not everything you read is factual. But keep clutching at straws, it&#8217;s almost comical.&#8221;</p>
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<p>Gaines <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/i-left-there-with-no-trophy-ncaa-female-swimmer-who-tied-for-fifth-with-trans-athlete-says-officials-put-lia-thomas-ahead-of-her">first shared her story with The Daily Wire</a> in March after she competed against Thomas in the 200 freestyle on Friday at the NCAA Division I Women’s Championships. Since then, she has repeatedly spoken out on Fox News and <a href="https://www.iwf.org/save-womens-sports-riley-gaines/">teamed up</a> with the Independent Women&#8217;s Forum to defend fairness in women&#8217;s sports.</p>
<p>At the CPAC event, Gaines shared how she tied with Thomas for fifth place but was asked to hold the sixth place trophy for a photo op.</p>
<p>&#8220;Pro-woman &amp; pro-fairness is not anti-trans,&#8221; she said in her Instagram post. &#8220;I truly can&#8217;t even believe this is a topic for debate. It&#8217;s simple.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;Women should not be forced to share a changing space &amp; compete against males with biological advantages that will never be completely diminished regardless of hormones taken,&#8221; she added. &#8220;If you&#8217;re delusional enough to think fairness for women is considered transphobic, you&#8217;re simply misogynistic.&#8221;</p>


Screen Shot 2022-08-08 at 11.39.55 AM

Lia Thomas Competitor Riley Gaines Shuts Down ‘Propaganda’ Rumors She Dodged Trump’s Kiss

Lia Thomas Competitor Shuts Down Rumors She Dodged Trump's Kiss At CPAC

CPAC

Donald Trump

<p>University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, speaking out about University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, a biological male, stated that when the college women competed against Thomas at the NCAA championships, they were not “forewarned” that Thomas would be sharing the locker room with them and undressing in front of them.</p>
<p>Gaines <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/former-ncaa-swimmer-riley-gaines-forced-compete-lia-thomas-details-extreme-discomfort-locker-room">spoke</a> with Tucker Carlson of Fox News, discussing the atmosphere at the championships as Thomas competed against the women.</p>
<p>“People just weren’t really talking about it. And so we get to NCAAs, it was at Georgia Tech, and so we get there, and the environment is nothing like I’ve ever seen before,” Gaines recalled. “It was so, like, almost edgy. Like people didn’t really know what to say, who to say what to, how to feel.”</p>
<p>“This was on day one,” she continued, “and then that night we watched Lia Thomas win a national title and blow all the other females completely out of the water. And that next day we came back and the mood had shifted to where people were mad.”</p>
<p>“The girls, you know, there were tears, these poor ninth and seventeenth place finishers who missed out on being named an All-American, there’s extreme discomfort in the locker room, there’s kind of these grumbles of —”</p>
<p>“Is he wandering around the women’s locker room?” Carlson interjected.</p>
<p>“Yeah. And that’s not something we were forewarned about, which I don’t think is right,” Gaines replied. “And any man’s changing in the locker room with someone who has different parts —”</p>
<p>“They just set a dude loose in your locker room and didn’t tell you,” Carlson persisted.</p>
<p>“Exactly,” Gaines answered. “And so I feel like to have that kind of forced upon us — so not only were we forced to race against a male, we were forced to change in the locker room with one. And so it’s just this feeling of like, ‘What is happening?’ Like, honestly, is this really happening? This is crazy.”</p>
<p>Gaines <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/i-left-there-with-no-trophy-ncaa-female-swimmer-who-tied-for-fifth-with-trans-athlete-says-officials-put-lia-thomas-ahead-of-her/">spoke</a> with Mary Margaret Olohan of The Daily Wire at the time of the NCAA championships. After she had placed fifth in the women&#8217;s 200 freestyle, tied with Thomas, she was informed that she would not receive her trophy at the championships since  Thomas would get it. Instead, she was forced to hold the sixth place trophy on the podium and was told she would get hers in the mail.</p>
<p>Gaines said an NCAA official told her, “I just want you to know that we respect you and admire your swim so much, but we just want Lia to hold the fifth place trophy.”</p>
<p>“It was a bit disheartening,” she said. “It really was. I left the pool with no trophy. Not a big deal, but it was the goal that I had set all year. &#8230; The more I thought about it, the more it fired me up. It&#8217;s almost like the NCAA is trying to save face by giving Lia the fifth place trophy. &#8230; Who are we trying to protect here, and who are we trying to fight for here?”</p>
<p>Gaines spoke of watching Virginia Tech swimmer Reka Gyorgy, who placed 17<sup>th</sup> in the 500 free as Thomas finished in the top 16. Gyorgy thus did not qualify for the finals.</p>
<p>“When Lia touched the wall, and [Reka] realized that she got 17th, the first thing she said to me was, ‘Wow, I can&#8217;t believe I just got beat by someone who probably wasn&#8217;t even trying their hardest.’”</p>
<p>“It just broke my heart,” Gaines said. “She had tears in her eyes.”</p>


Swimmer Who Competed With Lia Thomas At NCAA Championships: No One Warned Us Thomas Would Undress With Us

NCAA

Swimming

<p>Lia Thomas, the biological male on the University of Pennsylvania’s women’s swim team who engendered national outrage by blowing away the competition, was rejected as the Ivy League’s nominee for the NCAA’s “Woman of the Year.”</p>
<p>Thomas, who won the 500-yard freestyle event at the NCAA Division I national championships, had been <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/upenn-taps-transgender-swimmer-lia-thomas-for-ncaa-woman-of-the-year-award/">nominated by UPenn</a> earlier this month. The award recognizes “female student-athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves in their community, in athletics and in academics throughout their college careers.”</p>
<p>But the Ivy League, comprised of Penn, Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Princeton University and Yale University, <a href="https://www.ncaa.org/news/2022/7/25/media-center-conference-offices-select-their-nominees-for-2022-ncaa-woman-of-the-year.aspx">chose as its nominee</a> fencing champion Sylvie Binder of Columbia University/Barnard College.</p>
<p>Binder, who hails from Armonk, New York, is a three-time first team all-American who won the NCAA women&#8217;s foil title in 2019, and the bronze medal in 2018 and 2022. She <a href="https://gocolumbialions.com/news/2022/7/26/general-binder-tabbed-ivy-league-nominee-for-ncaa-woman-of-the-year-award">finished her undergraduate college education</a> with a stellar 3.91 grade point average.</p>
<p>In her <a href="https://www.cc-seas.columbia.edu/node/444636">bio</a> after winning a Leadership and Excellence Award, Binder wrote, “To my family and their unconditional love and support for the past 5 years: Dad, Mom, Abby, and Zach, I owe it all to you.”</p>
<p>After Penn nominated Thomas for the “Woman of the Year” award, former Fox News anchor and current podcast host Megyn Kelly <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/this-is-a-disgrace-megyn-kelly-blasts-upenn-for-nominating-lia-thomas-as-ncaa-woman-of-the-year/">blasted the university</a>. She snapped on her <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAoFylJ2wX4">podcast</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p><em>After a season of dumping on its female swimmers, forcing them to compete against a biological man who now says he is a woman, forcing them to share a locker room with said swimmer, dismissing their and their parents&#8217; concerns summarily at every turn, even telling the female swimmers what they needed if they objected to the trans swimmer was therapy, the university now sticks a final thumb in the woman&#8217;s eyes, nominating this trans swimmer who goes by the name Lia Thomas as the University of Pennsylvania&#8217;s NCAA “Woman of the Year.” This is a disgrace. Lia Thomas is not a woman.</em></p></blockquote>
<p>In February, 16 members of the Penn Women’s Swimming Team sent a letter to the University of Pennsylvania and the Ivy League in which they wrote, “Biologically, Lia holds an unfair advantage over competition in the women’s category, as evidenced by her rankings that have bounced from #462 as a male to #1 as a female. If she (Thomas) were to be eligible to compete against us, she could now break Penn, Ivy, and NCAA Women’s Swimming records; feats she could never have done as a male athlete,” as <a href="https://swimswam.com/group-of-penn-swimmers-ask-upenn-ivy-league-to-abide-by-new-transgender-policy/">Swim Swam</a> reported.</p>


Thomas:Binder

Lia Thomas, Nominated By UPenn, Rejected By Ivy League As NCAA ‘Woman Of The Year’

University of Pennsylvania

<p>Megyn Kelly blasted the University of Pennsylvania after it nominated Lia Thomas, a biological male who identifies as a female, as NCAA&#8217;s &#8220;Woman of the Year,&#8221; calling the move a &#8220;disgrace.&#8221;</p>
<p>During the Monday Sirius XM &#8220;The Megyn Kelly Show&#8221; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAoFylJ2wX4">podcast</a>, the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/give-me-a-fing-break-megyn-kelly-calls-aoc-a-congressional-kardashian-after-congresswoman-heckled-as-big-booty-latina">host</a> dropped a scathing monologue against UPenn.</p>
<p>&#8220;After a season of dumping on its female swimmers, forcing them to compete against a biological man who now says he is a woman, forcing them to share a locker room with said swimmer, dismissing their and their parents&#8217; concerns summarily at every turn, even telling the female swimmers what they needed if they objected to the trans swimmer was therapy,&#8221; said Kelly.</p>
<p>&#8220;The university now sticks a final thumb in the woman&#8217;s eyes, nominating this trans swimmer who goes by the name Lia Thomas as the University of Pennsylvania&#8217;s NCAA &#8216;Woman of the Year.&#8217; This is a disgrace,&#8221; Kelly claimed. &#8220;Lia Thomas is not a woman.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>WATCH:</strong></p>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" title="Megyn Kelly on the Outrageous Decision to Nominate Lia Thomas as &quot;Woman of the Year&quot;" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WAoFylJ2wX4?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen title="Megyn Kelly on the Outrageous Decision to Nominate Lia Thomas as "Woman of the Year""></iframe></p>
<p>&#8220;Lia Thomas is a trans woman who lived the first 20 years of her life as Will Thomas, a man,&#8221; Kelly continued. &#8220;She only decided to transition in 2020, after swimming three seasons as a middling competitor on the men&#8217;s team, ranking in the mid 500s. On the woman&#8217;s team, the very next year, ranked number one.&#8221;</p>
<p>The host then asked her audience how a person who lives &#8220;20 years as a man, two as a woman&#8221; winds up anyone&#8217;s &#8220;woman of the year?&#8221; She said it must be &#8220;some kind of sick joke meant to increase resentment towards trans people.&#8221;</p>
<p>Kelly went on to say she believes President Joe Biden&#8217;s administration has already signaled its plan to push reforms of Title IX, including &#8220;making the girls team accept biological men, who say they are trans women.&#8221;</p>
<p>The host then laid out her case against the university, noting that the UPenn biological women swimmers &#8220;worked hard as young girls to make it in swimming, to make it to Ivy League swimming.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;I mean not for not nothing, but they swam with growing breasts, growing hips, more fat on their bodies, less upper body strength, than their male competitors,&#8221; the former Fox News host pointed out. &#8220;They swam with shorter legs&#8230;thinner and weaker muscles than the boys. They swam with periods, and cramps, and bloating. &#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;And the women on that team and the others at the college level did it all despite these relative physical disadvantages when compared to their male colleagues,&#8221; she added. &#8220;Then at UPenn in the course of one year, they saw their medals, first place finishes, NCAA tournament spots, and records stolen from them by a person who was a crappy male swimmer on the men&#8217;s team months earlier.&#8221;</p>
<p>Kelly then concluded her monologue by noting that UPenn is &#8220;ready to shive Thomas&#8217; female teammates&#8221; with the &#8220;Woman of the Year&#8221; nomination.</p>
<p>&#8220;Lia Thomas is not woman of the year,&#8221; Kelly said. &#8220;That title belongs to one of the women who dealt with all the physical and emotional challenges and opportunities that come with being an actual woman&#8230;Not to a six-foot-three biological man who, within the last two years, declared that he was a woman. Period.&#8221;</p>


Megyn Kelly

‘This Is A Disgrace’: Megyn Kelly Blasts UPenn For Nominating Lia Thomas As NCAA ‘Woman Of The Year’

Megyn Kelly Blasts UPenn For Nominating Lia Thomas As NCAA ‘Woman Of The Year’ 

Entertainment

<p>Social media exploded with criticism on Friday after the University of Pennsylvania nominated transgender swimmer <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/lia-thomas">Lia Thomas</a>, who is biologically male and self-identifies as a woman, for the 2022 <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/ncaa">NCAA</a> Woman of the Year award.</p>
<p>Thomas, 22, competed on the men’s team at the University of Pennsylvania before identifying as female in 2019 and taking testosterone blockers and estrogen. The swimmer started competing on the women’s team in 2021, and quickly cleaned up at the NCAA Division I national championship, taking the women’s 500-yard freestyle event this March.</p>
<p>&#8220;It isn&#8217;t &#8216;inclusion&#8217; that leads the Ivy League to pull stunts like this,&#8221; <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/shop/products/irreversible-damage">&#8220;Irreversible Damage&#8221; author Abigail Shrier</a> commented. &#8220;It&#8217;s misogyny &#8211; and utter contempt for the truth.&#8221;</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">It isn&#39;t &#39;inclusion&#39; that leads the Ivy League to pull stunts like this. </p>
<p>It&#39;s misogyny &#8211; and utter contempt for the truth.<a href="https://t.co/AcxZ8WWWD4">https://t.co/AcxZ8WWWD4</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Abigail Shrier (@AbigailShrier) <a href="https://twitter.com/AbigailShrier/status/1548101144395726849?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 16, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<div id="id__0ef7qan5d2ah" class="css-1dbjc4n r-1ssbvtb r-1s2bzr4" aria-labelledby="id__2jm3n3w6yu id__1rjxisbxfza">
<div id="id__1rjxisbxfza" class="css-1dbjc4n r-1ets6dv r-1867qdf r-1phboty r-rs99b7 r-1ny4l3l r-1udh08x r-o7ynqc r-6416eg" aria-labelledby="id__g306wistq6t id__dkow5h0a1w" data-testid="card.wrapper">
<p id="id__g306wistq6t" class="css-1dbjc4n r-140t1nj r-pm2fo r-zmljjp r-rull8r r-qklmqi r-1adg3ll" aria-hidden="true" data-testid="card.layoutLarge.media">&#8220;Academia speaks!&#8221; said Michael Doran, a senior fellow and director of the Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East at Hudson Institute.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Academia speaks! <a href="https://t.co/HosqchG0Sm">https://t.co/HosqchG0Sm</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Mike (@Doranimated) <a href="https://twitter.com/Doranimated/status/1548094046509232128?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 15, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
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<p>&#8220;EVERY WOMAN IN THE NCAA MUST BOYCOTT,&#8221; writer Kimberly Morin charged. &#8220;They are pushing for MEN to ERASE WOMEN. If you allow it, they will continue and you will reap what you sow and you will AID in the DESTRUCTION of women&#8217;s sports.&#8221;</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">EVERY WOMAN IN THE NCAA MUST BOYCOTT. They are pushing for MEN to ERASE WOMEN. If you allow it, they will continue and you will reap what you sow and you will AID in the DESTRUCTION of women&#39;s sports <a href="https://t.co/oE9GrB7XRn">https://t.co/oE9GrB7XRn</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Kimberly Morin (@Conservativeind) <a href="https://twitter.com/Conservativeind/status/1548129112773996551?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 16, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>Radio host Dom Giordano remarked, &#8220;They won&#8217;t ease up.&#8221;</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">They won&#39;t ease up. <a href="https://t.co/FhGIEgXASc">https://t.co/FhGIEgXASc</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Dom Giordano (@DomShow1210) <a href="https://twitter.com/DomShow1210/status/1548093312518610945?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 15, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>&#8220;The patriarchy strikes again,&#8221; another Twitter user said.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">The patriarchy strikes again. <a href="https://t.co/f7iao1EoMj">https://t.co/f7iao1EoMj</a></p>
<p>&mdash; 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐠 (@CasuallyGreg) <a href="https://twitter.com/CasuallyGreg/status/1548074127289856002?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 15, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>&#8220;In a direct attack on its female athletes, UPenn suggests transgendered person as NCAA Woman of the Year Award,&#8221; Judicial Watch&#8217;s Tom Fitton said.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">In a direct attack on its female athletes, UPenn suggests  transgendered person as NCAA Woman of the Year Award.  <a href="https://t.co/WlIcVXFXbv">https://t.co/WlIcVXFXbv</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) <a href="https://twitter.com/TomFitton/status/1548075776947367938?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 15, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<div class="css-1dbjc4n">
<div class="css-1dbjc4n r-1s2bzr4">
<p id="id__l132wrd5eat" class="css-901oao r-18jsvk2 r-37j5jr r-1blvdjr r-16dba41 r-vrz42v r-bcqeeo r-bnwqim r-qvutc0" dir="auto" lang="en" data-testid="tweetText"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">&#8220;As a woman who was born a woman at birth and had to fight against a lot of bulls*** for 33 years to get where I am in my career. This PISSES me off,&#8221; Brielle Ann <a href="https://twitter.com/brielleann/status/1548113271504351232?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1548113271504351232%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Feditorial.dailywire.com%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost.php%3Fpost%3D409984action%3Dedit">commented</a>. </span></p>
<p dir="auto" lang="en" data-testid="tweetText">Vanessa Santos mocked, &#8220;Seems fair.&#8221;</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Seems fair <a href="https://t.co/kVQNXYwDp3">https://t.co/kVQNXYwDp3</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Vanessa Santos (@Vanessasantosxo) <a href="https://twitter.com/Vanessasantosxo/status/1548074299243630598?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 15, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
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<p>Some teammates have spoken out over the inclusion of Thomas, due to advantages the athlete has as a biological male.</p>
<p>One UPenn <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/upenn-swimmer-details-truth-surrounding-lia-thomas-in-new-matt-walsh-doc-what-is-a-woman">female swimmer</a>, who remained anonymous out of fear of retribution, told bestselling author and podcast host Matt Walsh in The Daily Wire&#8217;s groundbreaking documentary “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/videos/what-is-a-woman-official-trailer">What Is a Woman?</a>” that even basic concerns about the locker room were not allowed to be brought up. If they were, she said, it was clear you’d be smeared as “transphobic.”</p>
<p>Notably, Thomas still has a penis and has not had surgery to remove it and dates females, according to teammates.</p>
<p>“If you even brought up concerns about it, you were ‘transphobic,&#8217;” she told Walsh.</p>
<p>“If you even bring up the fact that Lia’s swimming might not be fair, you’re immediately shut down and called a hateful person, or transphobic,” she continued.</p>
<div>
<p><strong>Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/upenn-swimmer-details-truth-surrounding-lia-thomas-in-new-matt-walsh-doc-what-is-a-woman">UPenn Swimmer Details Truth Surrounding Lia Thomas In New Matt Walsh Doc ‘What Is A Woman?’</a></strong></p>
</div>


Screen Shot 2022-03-22 at 5.40.16 PM

‘The Patriarchy Strikes Again’: Social Media Explodes Over UPenn Move To Elevate Trans Swimmer Lia Thomas

Social Media Explodes Over UPenn Move To Elevate Trans Swimmer Lia Thomas 

<p>A former teammate of Lia Thomas, along with a rival team member who once tied with Thomas, blasted the transgender college swimmer&#8217;s championship title as illegitimate after swimming’s international governing body, the International Swimming Federation (FINA), issued stringent new restrictions on transgender swimmers.</p>
<p>On Monday, FINA <a href="https://resources.fina.org/fina/document/2022/06/19/525de003-51f4-47d3-8d5a-716dac5f77c7/FINA-INCLUSION-POLICY-AND-APPENDICES-FINAL-.pdf">released</a> a new &#8220;gender inclusion policy&#8221; that allows only transgender swimmers who transitioned from male to female before age 12 to compete in women&#8217;s events.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m very hopeful about it,&#8221; Thomas&#8217; teammate, who was granted anonymity out of fear of backlash, said of the new restrictions.</p>
<p>&#8220;I am incredibly happy that Lia Thomas will never be an Olympic gold medalist. I think that&#8217;s great. But this doesn&#8217;t actually fix the NCAA [National Collegiate Athletic Association],&#8221; she told The Daily Wire.</p>
<p>Thomas, 22, competed on the men&#8217;s team at the University of Pennsylvania before coming out as transgender in 2019 and starting testosterone blockers and estrogen. Last year, Thomas competed on the women&#8217;s team, sparking a national debate. In March, Thomas won the NCAA Division I national championship after winning the women&#8217;s 500-yard freestyle event.</p>
<p>The NCAA&#8217;s current <a href="https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/inclusion/lgbtq/INC_TransgenderHandbook.pdf">policy</a> allows biological males to compete on women&#8217;s teams after completing just one year of testosterone suppression treatment.</p>
<p>Thomas&#8217; teammate said she &#8220;would love&#8221; for the NCAA to rescind Thomas&#8217; championship title, although she&#8217;s doubtful that will happen. Even if the NCAA follows FINA&#8217;s lead and restricts transgender athletes on women&#8217;s teams, Thomas will likely be &#8220;grandfathered in,&#8221; the teammate said, adding that she finds that &#8220;ridiculous.&#8221;</p>
<p>Riley Gaines, a University of Kentucky swimmer, tied with Thomas for fifth place in the 200-yard freestyle final at the NCAA championship in March. She left the competition that day <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/04/04/swimmer-who-tied-lia-thomas-taken-aback-in-trophy-handling/">with a sixth-place trophy</a> after the NCAA decided to give Thomas the fifth-place trophy.</p>
<p>&#8220;I believe Lia is not the fastest female in the 500-yard freestyle, therefore I don&#8217;t think she should be awarded as a female national champion,&#8221; Gaines told The Daily Wire.</p>
<p>Gaines said the NCAA &#8220;needs to take accountability&#8221; and follow FINA&#8217;s lead on restricting transgender athletes on women&#8217;s teams, which she called &#8220;a bold first step on behalf of fairness in women&#8217;s sports.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;FINA prioritized competitive fairness which is more than any other large governing body has done thus far,&#8221; Gaines said, adding that she appreciated that FINA took into account science and the perspectives of other athletes.</p>
<p>&#8220;The only downfall is now that there is a set age to be transgender and allowed to compete as a female, will children be more swayed into transitioning without fully understanding what they&#8217;re doing and committing to?&#8221; Gaines asked.</p>
<p>Thomas&#8217; teammate who spoke with The Daily Wire also praised FINA for listening to the science, but voiced a similar concern that young swimmers could be pushed into transitioning earlier.</p>
<p>&#8220;The boys are actually slower than the girls under the age of 12. So scientifically speaking, that is actually the correct year to pick,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Socially, I don&#8217;t agree with that.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;I think really, scientifically, this policy makes a lot of sense, and I&#8217;m also really happy that it&#8217;s also going to be put into place in water polo,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Water polo is a very aggressive sport. People get their suits pulled down. They get clawed. I definitely don&#8217;t want to see biological men on women&#8217;s water polo teams.&#8221;</p>
<p>Thomas&#8217; teammate also said that she had to share a locker room with Thomas while they were on the team together and is <span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">concerned about the larger issue of allowing biological men into female-only spaces.</span></p>
<p>She added that just because Thomas did not win every single event does not mean the national champion did not enjoy an unfair advantage.</p>
<p>&#8220;There have been a lot of athletes that have been caught for doping and they didn&#8217;t necessarily win gold,&#8221; Thomas&#8217; teammate said.</p>


NCAA SWIMMING: MAR 17 Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships

Lia Thomas Teammate, Competitor Blast Title As Illegitimate In Wake Of FINA Transgender Restrictions

LGBTQ

<p><span data-preserver-spaces="true">FINA, the world’s top international swimming association, announced a new policy on gender inclusion on Sunday that further restricts biological males identifying as females from elite swimming competitions.</span></p>
<p><span data-preserver-spaces="true">The move comes following a vote of the FINA governing body regarding the controversial issue of biological males participating in women’s swimming.</span></p>
<p><span data-preserver-spaces="true">“We have to protect the rights of our athletes to compete, but we also have to protect competitive fairness at our events, especially the women’s category at FINA competitions,” FINA President Husain Al-Musallam said in a </span><a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://www.fina.org/news/2649715/press-release-fina-announces-new-policy-on-gender-inclusion" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">statement</span></a><span data-preserver-spaces="true">.</span></p>
<p><span data-preserver-spaces="true">The new policy also seeks to consider an “open” category for transgender athletic competition.</span></p>
<p><span data-preserver-spaces="true">“FINA will always welcome every athlete. The creation of an open category will mean that everybody has the opportunity to compete at an elite level. This has not been done before, so FINA will need to lead the way. I want all athletes to feel included in being able to develop ideas during this process,” he added.</span></p>
<p><span data-preserver-spaces="true">The only biological males who could compete in women’s swimming under the </span><a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://resources.fina.org/fina/document/2022/06/19/525de003-51f4-47d3-8d5a-716dac5f77c7/FINA-INCLUSION-POLICY-AND-APPENDICES-FINAL-.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">new policy</span></a><span data-preserver-spaces="true"> would include swimmers who have had “male puberty suppressed beginning at Tanner Stage 2 or before age 12, whichever is later, </span><u><span data-preserver-spaces="true">and</span></u><span data-preserver-spaces="true"> they have since continuously maintained their testosterone levels in serum (or plasma) below 2.5 nmol/L.”</span></p>
<p><span data-preserver-spaces="true">The new policy would prohibit athletes like Lia Thomas from competing in elite swim meets. Thomas made history earlier this year as the first transgender swimmer to win an event at the NCAA Division I women’s swimming championships.</span></p>
<p><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Thomas had also shared plans to pursue professional swimming with hopes of reaching the Olympics in women’s swimming. The new policy may threaten the option for Thomas and similar swimmers.</span></p>
<p><span data-preserver-spaces="true">“I intend to keep swimming,” Thomas </span><a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://apnews.com/article/winter-olympics-sports-college-swimming-united-states-olympic-team-14e7fd8d820a331d7aeb72b34cdc83e6" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">told</span></a><span data-preserver-spaces="true"> ABC. “It’s been a goal of mine to swim at Olympic trials for a very long time, and I would love to see that through.”</span></p>
<p><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Former U.K. swimmer Sharron Davies told BBC Sport she agreed with the decision.</span></p>
<p><span data-preserver-spaces="true">“‘Four years ago, along with 60 other Olympic medallists, I wrote to the IOC and said ‘Please just do the science first’ and no governing body has done the science until now,’” she </span><a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://www.bbc.com/sport/swimming/61853450?at_custom4=5FFA7C4C-EFE5-11EC-95E3-9FCC923C408C&amp;at_custom2=facebook_page&amp;at_campaign=64&amp;at_custom3=BBC+News&amp;at_medium=custom7&amp;at_custom1=%5Bpost+type%5D" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">said</span></a><span data-preserver-spaces="true">.</span></p>
<p><span data-preserver-spaces="true">“‘That is what [FINA] has done. They’ve done the science, they’ve got the right people on board, they’ve spoken to the athletes, and coaches. Swimming is a very inclusive sport, we love everyone to come and swim and be involved. But the cornerstone of sport is that it has to be fair and it has to be fair for both sexes,’” she added.</span></p>
<p><span data-preserver-spaces="true">Athlete Ally, a pro-LGBT group that supported Thomas in women’s swimming, spoke out against the new policy.</span></p>
<p><span data-preserver-spaces="true">“FINA’s new eligibility criteria for transgender athletes and athletes with intersex variations is discriminatory, harmful, unscientific and not in line with the 2021 IOC principles. If we truly want to protect women’s sports, we must include all women,” Athlete Ally </span><a class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://twitter.com/AthleteAlly/status/1538548251841990663" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span data-preserver-spaces="true">tweeted</span></a><span data-preserver-spaces="true"> on Sunday. International Swimming Federation</span></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">FINA’s new eligibility criteria for transgender athletes and athletes with intersex variations is discriminatory, harmful, unscientific and not in line with the 2021 IOC principles. If we truly want to protect women’s sports, we must include all women. <a href="https://t.co/MDjrWB6GrU">https://t.co/MDjrWB6GrU</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Athlete Ally (@AthleteAlly) <a href="https://twitter.com/AthleteAlly/status/1538548251841990663?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 19, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>


FINA Restricts Biological Males Identifying As Females From Elite Swimming Competitions

<p>It is indisputable that men have a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/transgender">biological advantage</a> over women in sports, and now even the far-left <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/new-york-times">The New York Times</a> is admitting it.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/29/us/lia-thomas-women-sports.html">an article</a> over the weekend interviewing numerous people involved in the debate about whether biological men should be allowed to compete against biological women, the Times included a section acknowledging the biological advantages men have over women. The Times included the information under a subhead title, “The Debate Over the Science,” but the section offers little debate.</p>
<p>“Beginning in the womb, men are bathed in testosterone and puberty accelerates that. Men on average have broader shoulders, bigger hands and longer torsos, and greater lung and heart capacity. Muscles are denser,” the Times acknowledged while speaking to Dr. Michael Joyner of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.</p>
<p>Joyner, who “studies the physiology of male and female athletes,” according to the Times, told the outlet that the testosterone surge men receive during puberty eliminates any advantage women had by growing faster than boys leading up to puberty.</p>
<p>“You see the divergence immediately as the testosterone surges into the boys,” Joyner told the Times. “There are dramatic differences in performances.”</p>
<p>The Times then confirmed this information by noting that “records for elite adult male swimmers are on average 10 percent to 12 percent faster than the records of elite female swimmers, an advantage that has held for decades.”</p>
<p>The reason is due to the factors listed above: broader shoulders, denser muscles, bigger lung and heart capacity, etc.</p>
<p>“There are social aspects to sport, but physiology and biology underpin it,” Joyner told the outlet. “Testosterone is the 800-pound gorilla.”</p>
<p>The Times also pointed out that peer-reviewed studies show that even if men suppress their testosterone for a year, per NCAA rules in order to compete again biological women, they still “retain a substantial edge.”</p>
<p>This is proven by the fact that biological men who enter women’s sports substantially increase their rankings. For example, the Times noted that University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, who competed as a biological man for years before identifying as a transgender woman and entering women’s competitions, ranked 32<sup>nd</sup> in the men’s 1,650-yard freestyle. Once Thomas started competing in women’s competitions, the swimmer ranked 8<sup>th</sup> and even won a race by a whopping 38 seconds. In the men’s 200-yard freestyle, Thomas ranked 554<sup>th</sup>, but in 2022, competing against women, Thomas placed 5<sup>th</sup> in the NCAA championship.  Thomas ranked 65<sup>th</sup> in the men’s 500-yard freestyle. Competing against women, Thomas won the race.</p>
<p>“Lia Thomas is the manifestation of the scientific evidence,” Dr. Ross Tucker, a sports physiologist, told the Times. “The reduction in testosterone did not remove her biological advantage.”</p>
<p>Further, the Times noted that “most scientists… view performance differences between elite male and female athletes as near immutable,” citing Israeli physicist Ira S. Hammerman, who in 2010 found the obvious: women’s world record times are 10% slower than men’s world record times.</p>
<p>Even some transgender athletes acknowledge the unfair advantage, the Times noted. Renée Richards played tennis as a man and ranked 13<sup>th</sup> in the men’s 35-and-over division before transitioning to a woman in 1975 at the age of 41. At age 43, Richards joined the women’s pro tennis tour and was able to compete in the doubles final at Wimbledon. Richards retired at age 47, ranked 19<sup>th</sup> in the world. Richards admitted that being a biological male provided the advantage.</p>
<p>“I know if I’d had surgery at the age of 22, and then at 24 went on the tour, no genetic woman in the world would have been able to come close to me,” Richards <a href="https://slate.com/culture/2012/10/jewish-jocks-and-renee-richards-the-life-of-the-transsexual-tennis-legend.html">told</a> Slate in 2012. “I’ve reconsidered my opinion.”</p>


2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming & Diving Championship

Even The New York Times Admits Biological Men Have A Huge Advantage Over Women In Sports

Even New York Times Admits Biological Men Have A Huge Advantage Over Women In Sports

Gender Identity

<p>Another medical expert is suggesting that current testosterone suppression requirements for athletes is most likely &#8220;insufficient&#8221; for evening the playing field between transgender women and biologically female athletes.</p>
<p>As part of an exclusive Good Morning America segment on trans swimmer Lia Thomas, ABC reporter JuJu Chang also interviewed Dr. Michael Joyner, a medical expert with the Mayo Clinic.</p>
<p>Chang questioned Joyner whether &#8220;years of hormone therapy cannot put trans women in a place to compete with cisgender women.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;I think that the evidence so far would suggest that period of a year, two years, three years, four years, is probably insufficient,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p><strong>WATCH: </strong></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">🚨🚨<a href="https://twitter.com/JujuChangABC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JujuChangABC</a>: &quot;Are you saying that years of hormone therapy cannot put trans women in a place to compete with cisgender women? </p>
<p>Dr. Michael Joyner: &quot;I think that the evidence so far would suggest that period of a year, 2 years, 3 years, 4 years, is probably insufficient.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/R0kHHXyeN4">pic.twitter.com/R0kHHXyeN4</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) <a href="https://twitter.com/MaryMargOlohan/status/1531640976313303040?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 31, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>Joyner also shared his thoughts on testosterone advantages <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/29/us/lia-thomas-women-sports.html">in an interview with The New York Times</a>.</p>
<p>“You see the divergence immediately as the testosterone surges into the boys,&#8221; he said. &#8220;There are dramatic differences in performances.”</p>
<p>“There are social aspects to sport, but physiology and biology underpin it,” Joyner added. “Testosterone is the 800-pound gorilla.”</p>
<p>The NCAA Board of Governors <a href="https://www.ncaa.org/news/2022/1/19/media-center-board-of-governors-updates-transgender-participation-policy.aspx">updated</a> its transgender participation policy in January, requiring transgender athletes to document “sport-specific” testosterone levels within their sport’s approved range at the beginning of the season and ahead of championship selections.</p>
<p>“We are steadfast in our support of transgender student-athletes and the fostering of fairness across college sports,” John DeGioia, chair of the NCAA board and president of Georgetown University, said in a statement at the time.</p>
<p>“It is important that NCAA member schools, conferences and college athletes compete in an inclusive, fair, safe and respectful environment and can move forward with a clear understanding of the new policy,” he added.</p>
<p>But many parents and athletes do not believe this is enough — and the Times cited peer-reviewed studies that demonstrate that the fastest biologically male transgender athletes still have a &#8220;substantial edge&#8221; over the fastest biologically female athletes even after testosterone suppression.</p>
<p>Thomas is a great example of this: the transgender athlete shot up in national rankings after entering women&#8217;s sports, ranking 32nd in the men&#8217;s 1,650-yard freestyle and then eight in the women&#8217;s 1,650-yard freestyle, the Times reported.</p>
<p>In the men&#8217;s 200-yard freestyle, Thomas had ranked 554th. This year, Thomas tied for fifth place with swimmer Riley Gaines in that same race at the women&#8217;s 2022 NCAA championships (Gaines said that an NCAA official gave Thomas the fifth place trophy over Gaines, since they only had one).</p>
<p>Gaines <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/i-left-there-with-no-trophy-ncaa-female-swimmer-who-tied-for-fifth-with-trans-athlete-says-officials-put-lia-thomas-ahead-of-her">first spoke out</a> about her frustration with the event in an interview with The Daily Wire, insisting, &#8220;We need to create fair boundaries that protect the integrity of women in sports.&#8221;</p>
<p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The Times noted that Thomas ranked 65th in the men&#8217;s 500-yard freestyle, but won the 500-yard freestyle at the NCAA&#8217;s swimming as a female.</p>
<p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Dr. Ross Tucker, a physiologist who spoke with the Times, said that “Lia Thomas is the manifestation of the scientific evidence.&#8221;</p>
<p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“The reduction in testosterone did not remove her biological advantage,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>The Times story comes ahead of the release of The Daily Wire&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/videos/what-is-a-woman-official-trailer">What Is A Woman</a> documentary, in which Matt Walsh examines the current controversy surrounding gender and biology.</p>


Screen Shot 2022-05-31 at 10.46.14 AM

Medical Expert: Brief Hormone Suppression ‘Probably Insufficient’ To Even The Playing Field Between Trans Women And Biologically Female Athletes

Physiologist Warns Brief Hormone Suppression 'Probably Insufficient' To Even The Playing Field Between Trans Women And Biologically Female Athletes 

Good Morning America

<p>Biological male swimmer Lia Thomas seemed to suggest that competitive advantages in swimming are irrelevant since Thomas is now &#8220;happy&#8221; identifying and competing as a transgender woman.</p>
<p>Thomas <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/i-left-there-with-no-trophy-ncaa-female-swimmer-who-tied-for-fifth-with-trans-athlete-says-officials-put-lia-thomas-ahead-of-her">discussed backlash</a> following the NCAA Women&#8217;s Swimming Championships where the trans athlete competed against biological females, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biologically-male-swimmer-annihilates-female-competitors-in-500-free">annihilating</a> them in the 500 freestyle.</p>
<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a lot of factors that go into a race and how well you do,&#8221; Thomas told Good Morning America in an exclusive interview that aired Tuesday. &#8220;The biggest change for me is that I&#8217;m happy.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>WATCH: </strong></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Trans athlete Lia Thomas, speaking out after the NCAA backlash, addresses whether biological males have advantages over women: &quot;There&#39;s a lot of factors that go into a race and how well you do. The biggest change for me is that I&#39;m happy.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/bXbKfcpZ2o">pic.twitter.com/bXbKfcpZ2o</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) <a href="https://twitter.com/MaryMargOlohan/status/1531639466946871296?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 31, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>&#8220;Sophomore year, I had my best times competing with the men, I was miserable, and so having that be lifted is incredibly relieving and allows me to put my all into training, into racing,&#8221; Thomas continued.</p>
<p>&#8220;Trans people don&#8217;t transition for athletics, we transition to be happy and authentic and our true selves,&#8221; Thomas said. &#8220;Transitioning to get an advantage is not something that ever factors into our decisions.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;You didn&#8217;t transition to win more medals?&#8221; asked ABC reporter Juju Chang.</p>
<p>&#8220;No,&#8221; responded Thomas.</p>
<p>Chang pointed out that many of Thomas&#8217;s teammates signed an anonymous letter saying that they support the biological male athlete&#8217;s right to transition but believe that it is unfair for Thomas to compete against biological women in sports.</p>
<p>&#8220;You can&#8217;t go halfway and be like, I support trans women and trans people but only to a certain point,&#8221; Thomas said. &#8220;If  you support trans women as women, and they&#8217;ve met all the NCAA requirements, then I don&#8217;t know if you can really say something like that. Trans women are not a threat to women&#8217;s sports.&#8221;</p>
<p>Chang also interviewed Dr. Michael Joyner, a medical expert with the Mayo Clinic, asking whether &#8220;years of hormone therapy cannot put trans women in a place to compete with cisgender women.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;I think that the evidence so far would suggest that period of a year, two years, three years, four years, is probably insufficient,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p><strong>WATCH: </strong></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">🚨🚨<a href="https://twitter.com/JujuChangABC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JujuChangABC</a>: &quot;Are you saying that years of hormone therapy cannot put trans women in a place to compete with cisgender women? </p>
<p>Dr. Michael Joyner: &quot;I think that the evidence so far would suggest that period of a year, 2 years, 3 years, 4 years, is probably insufficient.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/R0kHHXyeN4">pic.twitter.com/R0kHHXyeN4</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) <a href="https://twitter.com/MaryMargOlohan/status/1531640976313303040?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 31, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>Chang also asked Thomas about the &#8220;legacy effects of testosterone&#8221; and whether biologically male athletes can ever truly eliminate all testosterone that is giving them advantages over women.</p>
<p>&#8220;Should that eliminate or disqualify transgender women?&#8221; Chang asked.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not a medical expert but there is a lot of variation among cis female athletes,&#8221; Thomas said. &#8220;There are cis women who are very tall and very muscular and have more testosterone than another cis woman. Should that disqualify them?&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>WATCH: </strong></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">EXCLUSIVE: &quot;Trans people don&#39;t transition for athletics. We transition to be happy and authentic and our true selves.&quot;</p>
<p>Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas speaks out to <a href="https://twitter.com/JujuChangABC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JujuChangABC</a> about backlash and future plans to compete. <a href="https://t.co/UFQOgMNBLj">https://t.co/UFQOgMNBLj</a> <a href="https://t.co/FJcmyEChi9">pic.twitter.com/FJcmyEChi9</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Good Morning America (@GMA) <a href="https://twitter.com/GMA/status/1531603373958496256?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 31, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>The interview comes ahead of the release of The Daily Wire&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/videos/what-is-a-woman-official-trailer">What Is A Woman</a> documentary, in which Matt Walsh examines the current controversy surrounding gender and biology.</p>


Screen Shot 2022-05-31 at 10.21.38 AM

Trans Swimmer Lia Thomas Shrugs Off Question Of Advantages Over Biological Females: ‘I’m Happy’

'I'm Happy': Lia Thomas Shrugs Off Advantages Over Biological Females 

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