US swimmers demand measures to manage trans Lia Thomas case

Chicago (USA), 25 Mar A group of female swimmers from the University of Arizona expressed their “concern” about the future of women's sport on Friday and called on the National University Sports Association (NCAA), the body that governs U.S. college competitions, to take steps to avoid injustices, following the case of trans swimmer Lia Thomas. The triumph of transgender swimmer Lia Thomas in a recent women's national swimming championship, having easily dominated the 500-yard freestyle event of the “NCAA Division I” and winning ahead of Emma Weyant, Olympic silver medal in Tokyo, caused controversy in the United States and Arizona swimmers felt that allowing women to Trans swimmers competing with women means jeopardizing the future of women's sport. “Do we have the right to speak? It is difficult to explain the concern we felt in the women's swimming community after what happened last week. On the one hand, we feel that we are experiencing irrevocable damage to sport that has made us grow and be better. On the other hand, we have reunited as sisters after many difficult years,” the swimmers of the University of Arizona wrote in a letter to the top of the NCAA. After providing biological data to highlight the different performance between men and women in swimming, the letter states that “the NCAA tried to please everyone by allowing Lia Thomas to compete directly with women” and that, however, she ended up “failing with both”. “The weight of protests and national humiliation was placed on top of a trans athlete,” they insist, adding that the other swimmers saw how “the integrity of the championship was eliminated.” The letter also emphasizes that transgender women to men “do not have the same opportunities as those who go through the opposite process”, who are “severely harmed when it comes to getting a place in a team because of the differences in strength and speed between the different categories”. “We are willing and eager to discuss directly with the NCAA the potential steps that can be taken to create new solutions to expand the sport's family,” the letter concludes. Last Tuesday, following tough controversy over the result of the NCAA Division I national swimming championship, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis issued a proclamation recognizing Florida swimmer Emma Weyant as a legitimate winner. Weyant, a silver medal in the 400-meter style event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, was second, second and a half behind 22-year-old Thomas, who had made history by becoming the first transsexual to win a national swimming championship. Thomas is part of the University of Pennsylvania, from which a group of 16 members of the women's swimming team asked in February by letter that the trans swimmer be excluded from the Ivy League competition, considering that she has biological advantages. Thomas has erased the records of the university league that later legendary swimmers such as Missy Franklin or Katie Ledecky imposed by later legendary swimmers like Missy Franklin or Katie Ledecky as it takes half a pool away from their competitors. Lia competed as Will Thomas until 2019, when a sex change process began. After the year of testosterone inhibition treatment required by the university league in these cases, Lia can currently participate without limitation in women's tests. CHIEF am/car