Transgender swimmer defends right to compete, signals Olympic ambition

Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas has hit back at critics, defending her right to compete and flagging her Olympic ambitions.

Swimmer Lia Thomas, the first transgender athlete to win a top-tier university title in America, insisted that trans athletes don’t transition to gain an edge in sports and voiced ambitions to compete in the Olympics.

Thomas won the 500-yard freestyle crown at the US collegiate championships in March. She competes for the University of Pennsylvania, and was on the men’s team for three years before switching to the women’s squad this season.

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Controversy has shrouded Thomas throughout the year, with critics and some fellow swimmers saying she should not have been allowed to compete and has an unfair physiological advantage.

Others say she should be allowed to compete freely as a woman. In an interview with US TV program Good Morning America, 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 said.

“Trans women are not a threat to women’s sports.

“I also don’t need anybody’s permission to be myself and to do the sport that I love. I intend to keep swimming.

“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.”

Lia Thomas has been at the centre of controversy. (Photo by Kathryn Riley/Getty Images)

Thomas also hit back at some of her college swimming teammates, who signed an anonymous letter arguing she posed a threat to women’s sports even though she had followed all the guidelines before competing.

“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.”

US Olympic swimming trials for the Summer Games of 2024 in Paris begin in June.

After New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard last year became the first trans athlete to compete in the Olympics in Tokyo, transgender issues have roiled the world of sports.

In November the International Olympic Committee essentially left it up to each sport to make their own rules, saying there was no scientific consensus on the role of testosterone on performance in sports.

Thomas has been allowed to compete this season because she had been taking testosterone suppression treatment for more than a year. She was ruled eligible to compete at this year’s Ivy League championships as eligibility requirements are now left up to individual sports.

The controversy has political overtones, too, in the United States. Several states run by conservatives have recently barred trans girls from competing in school sports.

With AFP and the New York Post

Originally published as Transgender swimmer defends right to compete, signals Olympic ambition