Former Penn swimmer Lia Thomas, 23, says she has a goal to compete in the Olympics after transitioning to the women’s team after three years on the men’s team.
During her first televised interview with ABC’s Juju Chang, Thomas talked about her contentious season at the University of Pennsylvania. She became the first transgender woman to win a Division 1 national title.
“I knew there would be scrutiny against me if I competed as a woman. I was prepared for that, but I also don’t need anybody’s permission to be myself and do the sport I love,” she said.
Furthermore, Thomas addressed the concerns that she still had a physical advantage over other female swimmers despite undergoing a year of hormone therapy.
“There’s a lot of factors that go into a race and how well you do, and the biggest change for me is that I’m happy, and sophomore year when I had my best times competing with the men, I was miserable. So having that be lifted is incredibly relieving and allows me to put my all into training and racing,” Thomas said.
“Trans people don’t transition for athletics. We transition to be happy and authentic and our true selves. Transitioning to get an advantage is not something that ever factors into our decisions.”
Thomas noted that cisgender female athletes had varied physical body types as well and questioned whether they, too, should be disqualified for having the upper hand.
“I’m not a medical expert, but there’s a lot of variation among cis female athletes,” she said. “There are cis women who are very tall and very muscular and have more testosterone than another cis woman, and should that then also disqualify them?”
In March, Thomas became the first transgender athlete to win a Division I national title when she won the 500 free final by just over a second against Olympic medalist and Virginia standout Emma Weyant, setting a program record.
She also competed in two other events, placing fifth in the 200-meter freestyle and dead last in the 100-meter freestyle.
Members of the Penn women’s swimming team spoke out anonymously against Thomas’ involvement, claiming that it jeopardized the sport’s credibility, but they also expressed support for her choice to transition.
“You can’t go halfway and be, like, ‘I support trans women and trans people, but only to a certain point,'” Thomas said. “Where if you support trans women as women and they’ve met all the NCAA requirements, then I don’t know if you can really say something like that.”
She continued: “Trans women are not a threat to women’s sports.”
Thomas told Chang that she planned “to keep swimming,” and including in the Olympics. “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.”
