The following report is from ESPN:
Lia Thomas is a national champion.
Thomas, who is a transgender woman, touched the wall in 4 minutes, 33.24 seconds in the 500-yard freestyle on Thursday night to become the first known transgender athlete to win a Division I national championship in any sport.
Thomas finished 1.75 seconds ahead of second-place Emma Weyant, who attends Virginia. Thomas’ time was a season best and a little more than 9 seconds off of Katie Ledecky’s 4:24.06 record.
The race began with the crowd cheering for each of the swimmers, but fans were noticeably quiet for Thomas’ introduction. Save Women’s Sports founder Beth Stelzer draped a vinyl banner with the organization’s phrase over the railing.
During the race, Thomas was alternately tested by Olympians Brooke Forde (Stanford), Erica Sullivan (Texas) and Weyant. Thomas led early, but was passed by Sullivan and trailed for most of the first half of the race. Thomas and Weyant went stroke-for-stroke in the back half of the race, but Thomas pulled away over the final 150 yards to win her first national championship.
It means the world to be here.
Thomas said in an interview with Elizabeth Beisel after the race.
Thomas, who declined to attend the NCAA-required postrace news conference, told Beisel she has been trying to tune out the distractions.
I try to ignore it as much as I can. 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.
Thomas said.
As she stood on the podium with her trophy, she flashed a peace sign, just as she did for her four Ivy League championships. And once again, the crowd was noticeably quiet as she was announced as the champion.
Thomas returns to the pool Friday morning for the 200-yard freestyle prelims. She also is scheduled to compete in the 100 on Saturday.
It’s a symbol of Lia’s resilience. The fact that she’s able to show up here, despite protesters outside, people shouting and booing her, I think it’s a testament to her resiliency. And it’s also a symbol that we can both be who we are and do what we love.
Schuyler Bailar, who at Harvard became the first known transgender man to compete on a Division I men’s team, told ESPN.
Any hate is unnecessary. We need to look at it as we’re all competitors right now. We’re focused on ourselves and our team. Our first and foremost goal is to win a national title.
Virginia junior Lexi Cuomo said after the Cavaliers won the 200 freestyle relay.
After posting the nation’s top times in the 200 and 500 freestyle events in December at the Zippy Invitational in Akron, Ohio, Thomas garnered national attention. Her success in the pool drew both praise and criticism. Some of that criticism was on full display in Atlanta.
Outside of the McAuley Center, dueling protests dominated the morning. More than 20 protesters from Save Women’s Sports and Young Women for America (the college branch of Concerned Women for America) chanted outside, protesting Thomas’ inclusion in the women’s category.
The group also included Idaho state Rep. Barbara Ehardt, the author of HB 500. HB 500 was the first law restricting transgender athletes’ ability to play sports in accordance with their gender identity. It has since been blocked in federal court.
We’re not going to stand by and let women be displaced. We must fight for their rights.
Said Annabelle Rutledge, the national director for Young Women for America.
Concerned Women for America announced Thursday that the organization filed a Title IX complaint against the University of Pennsylvania. CWA contends that Penn is violating Title IX by allowing Thomas to compete on the women’s team.
The future of women’s sports is at risk and the equal rights of female athletes are being infringed. We filed a formal civil rights complaint against UPenn in response to this injustice.
CWA president and CEO Penny Nance said in a statement.
This is not the first Title IX complaint CWA has filed in response to a prominent transgender athlete. After Franklin Pierce University (FPU) track athlete CeCe Telfer won a Division II national championship in the 400m hurdles in 2019, CWA filed a Title IX complaint with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the Department of Education. The OCR found that FPU’s transgender inclusion policy violated Title IX and the school was forced to rescind its policy. The Department of Education has not yet responded to CWA’s latest complaint.
On the other side of the street from Save Women’s Sports and CWA were a dozen counterprotesters, who were Georgia Tech graduate and undergraduate students.
They are bringing off-campus hate onto our campus.
Georgia Tech Grad Pride president Naiki Kaffezakis told ESPN.
Another counterprotester, who wished to be acknowledged by only her first name, had words of support for Thomas.
I’m rooting for her. I’m very happy for her. Good luck out there, girl. Get ’em.
Em said.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
Jude 7
This has definitely generated a lot of controversy lately since Thomas’ win on the 18th. So much so, even Thomas’ teammates have spoken out. In an exclusive report, the Daily Mail reported on an anonymous swimmer for UPenn, who said she and the girls on the team are very uncomfortable with the situation, and have even raised concerns with the coaches, but the school does not do anything about it, and basically insinuates that the girls can leave their own locker room instead.
It’s definitely awkward because Lia still has male body parts and is still attracted to women.
Multiple swimmers have raised it, multiple different times. But we were basically told that we could not ostracize Lia by not having her in the locker room and that there’s nothing we can do about it, that we basically have to roll over and accept it, or we cannot use our own locker room.
It’s really upsetting because Lia doesn’t seem to care how it makes anyone else feel. The 35 of us are just supposed to accept being uncomfortable in our own space and locker room for, like, the feelings of one.
This swimmer said
Moreover, even the very decorated former Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps chimed in, and while he was a bit politically correct on his position, he still felt this was an unfair advantage.
Thomas’ has not even ‘transitioned’ for that long (as if that even makes a difference or justifies it). Earlier this year Swim Swam reported on a letter sent by 16 of the swimmers on the UPenn team, who sent a letter to the administration and Ivy League stating that:
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.
For those unaware, right around the time The WinePress began to have technical glitches in late last year, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) made the controversial decision to announce ‘a new framework for transgender and intersex athletes Tuesday, dropping controversial policies that required competing athletes to undergo “medically unnecessary” procedures or treatment,’ reported by Gay Sonoma.
Included in this, these perverted biological males who wish to pretend they are a girl, do not even need to suppress their testosterone levels, or neuter themselves, or literally anything. As long as they say they are a girl, then that’s it. Howbeit, reduced testosterone still would only make a fractional difference, as there are a plethora of other factors that still obviously are involved. But the fact that we are even entertaining this conversation right now just tells you how perverted this world has become, and will only get worse.
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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Wicked ridiculous selfishness. What judgment for fostering such wickedness & folly, & cultivating it to grow in the darkness. Meet the elites’ new amoral crony managing class. Next best thing to AI, & probably an agitation to build rage & destroy those people, so the people will be more apt to receive AI is a ‘good’. Our government’s already full of such. Throwing off their cloaks. Despised, but feared. Like the Roman emperors & ruling class of old.
I hope this guy is trolling and comes forth with it after this..
Maybe he is trying to prove something. I hope..
Utter wickedness. Evil. For his own selfish gain. A man who ranked #462 against fellow men decided to say he was a woman so he could compete against women to actually win. Disgusting. And anyone who speaks against this is deemed as hating. We are to hate evil. Problem is the world calls evil good and good evil.