Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas said she intends to continue competing, with the ultimate goal of reaching the Olympics.
Key points:
- Thomas joined the University of Pennsylvania women’s swimming team after competing in the men’s team for three years
- She won the 500-yard women’s freestyle at the NCAA Championships in Atlanta
- Thomas would need USA Swimming’s approval to try to qualify for the next Olympics
In an interview with the US ABC’s Good Morning America on Tuesday, Thomas also discussed the arguments of those who say it has an unfair biological advantage that ruins the integrity of women’s athletics.
“Trans women are not a threat to women’s sports,” she said.
Thomas became a prominent symbol of transgender athletes, provoking both opposition and support, when she joined the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) women’s swimming team after competing in the team for three years. male Ivy League school.
In March, Thomas won the 500-yard women’s freestyle at the NCAA Championships in Atlanta, becoming the first transgender woman to claim a national swimming title.
Since then, he has graduated from Penn and plans to attend law school, in addition to pursuing his goal of qualifying for the 2024 U.S. Olympic swimming events that will determine the team for the Olympics. of Paris.
“I intend to keep swimming,” Thomas told ABC.
“My goal is to swim in the Olympics for a long time, and I would love to do that.”
Thomas looks ahead to the start of the 200-yard freestyle during the 2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships.
USA Swimming has used a review committee to make individual case-by-case determinations since 2018. Thomas would need the approval of the governing body to try to qualify for the upcoming Olympic events.
Thomas, who grew up in Austin, Texas, said he fell in love with swimming at age four, but felt increasingly disconnected from his body as he grew older.
“I didn’t feel like a kid,” he said.
After high school, Thomas earned a spot on the Penn Men’s Swimming Team. But in his sophomore year, he struggled with deep depression and suicidal thoughts.
“I was barely going to class. I could barely get out of bed,” he recalled.
She said she finally said to herself, “I can’t live like this anymore. I want to live again. I want to be able to do things I enjoy.”
Thomas said the fear of not being able to compete in the sport he loved prevented him from transitioning initially. But at the end of her sophomore year, she began hormone replacement therapy.
“Mental and emotional changes happened really quickly. I felt so much better mentally. I was less depressed,” she said.
“And I lost too much muscle and became much weaker and much, much slower in the water.”
Thomas began swimming in Penn’s women’s swimming team at the start of his senior year, following NCAA guidelines at a time when athletes had to complete a year of hormone replacement therapy to change their gender categories.
The scrutiny of Thomas grew as he achieved much more swimming success competing against women than before.
Transgender athletes have become a prominent political target, with many U.S. conservative states pushing for laws that require high school athletes to compete based on the gender they were assigned at birth.
Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a proclamation declaring Florida-born NCAA runner-up Emma Weyant as the true winner of the 500 women’s title.
The NCAA has changed its transgender eligibility guidelines to allow each sport to follow the rules set by the national governing body of each sport.
Thomas, in an interview with ABC, dismissed some of the criticism he received especially during his senior season, when he rarely spoke to the media. She mocked the idea of making the transition to being more successful as a swimmer.
“We make the transition to being happy and authentic and our true self,” he said.
“The transition to an advantage is not something that never makes sense of our decisions.”
Thomas also said that it is not fair to prevent transgender people from competing in sports or limiting them to competing only with each other.
“Apart from not allowing for the full sporting experience, this is incredibly different for trans people who are already facing immense discrimination in other parts of our lives,” Thomas said.
He said the highlight of his college graduation was hearing his name as Lia Thomas.
“When I got across the stage and heard them say my name it was a lot of fun,” he said.
AP