Lia Thomas, the transgender swimmer, was awarded first place at the 2022 NCAA Division 1 Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships in the 500 freestyle on Thursday.
Lia Thomas just took first place at the 2022 NCAA Division 1 Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships in the 500 freestyle. #SaveWomensSports pic.twitter.com/UWvDQMYHRJ
— Colin Wright (@SwipeWright) March 17, 2022
But it didn’t go down well with some of the other competitors and others in the audience. You can see here how there’s wild cheering for Emma Weyant, the freshman who was awarded second place. But just polite claps from the other competitors for Thomas. One girl doesn’t even clap.
NCAA- As winners are announced crowd goes wild for 2nd place winner of the 500Y Freestyle.
Crowd goes quiet as Thomas is announced first place. pic.twitter.com/fh5sVvlVxc
— Sav (@RapidFire_Pod) March 17, 2022
Here’s Thomas talking about competing there.
“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
You can see the size difference here:
From @DailyMail: ‘University of Virginia swimmer Emma Weyant, who is Olympic silver medalist, is hailed as a heroine on social media after coming second in NCAA championships to controversial trans rival Lia Thomas.’ https://t.co/CNMpSPJ71J pic.twitter.com/QMmqzUB6ua
— Byron York (@ByronYork) March 18, 2022
Parents weighed in on the situation.
Parents of a female swimmer say “it’s just not right” that a biological male is allowed to swim against their daughter.
“It’s taking opportunity away from females that have worked very, very hard for a long, long time.” pic.twitter.com/nyDoT1VIWv
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 18, 2022
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that it isn’t fair to the women and good on the editor at Swimming World John Lohn for calling out the unfairness when so many others would just be silent on the damaging effect this is having on women’s sports.
When Thomas touched the wall in 4:33.82 during the prelims of the event, that time did more than earn her the top seed for the final. Her presence kept ninth-place finisher Tylor Mathieu from Florida out of the championship final. Her presence – and the NCAA’s inaction – kept 17th-place finisher Reka Gyorgy of Virginia Tech out of the consolation final. Mathieu and Gyorgy deserved their proper moments in the spotlight. Both were denied.
Years down the road, Lia Thomas’ name will be listed as the titlist of the 500 freestyle at the 2022 NCAA Championships. There should be an asterisk next to her name. Meanwhile, the NCAA will be remembered for turning its back on biological women and producing a competitive environment that was anything but legitimate.
Lohn noted male puberty and testosterone as well as “A 6-3 frame. Greater natural strength. Larger hands and feet. Enhanced lung capacity. None of these edges, for the record, can be fully mitigated…A transgender female competing against biological females is not a fair fight.”
Lohn said that when Swimming World proposed alternative competition options for Thomas, they were attacked as transphobes.
Martina Navratilova, who was a tennis legend for women’s sports, also spoke out against the unfairness of it all, suggesting that perhaps there should be an asterisk on the “win.” She also proposed that the answer to the question would be to allow biological women to compete against biological women and then have an open category. She’s also been attacked for speaking up for fundamental fairness for women.
But Caitlyn Jenner, who is also transgender, delivered the response of all responses on the subject. Jenner had weighed in saying, “I don’t see how you can be happy beating other girls under these circumstances. You have to have a sense of personal responsibility.” Then Jenner was attacked by Pink News who called the remarks a “disgraceful attack” on transgender people. Then Jenner leveled them.
No, I just had the balls to stand up for women and girls in sports. https://t.co/FEl2Hav5z6
— Caitlyn Jenner (@Caitlyn_Jenner) March 17, 2022
“No, I just had the balls to stand up for women and girls in sports,” Jenner said.
Unfortunately, the NCAA and much of the media don’t.
This article was originally published by RedState. Read the original article.
