‘Very fake’: Teammate speaks out as transgender swimmer smashes records

The teammate of a transgender swimmer smashing college records in America has revealed a “very fake” aspect of the situation.

A teammate of Lia Thomas on the University of Pennsylvania women’s swim team has spoken out as the transgender swimmer shattered records in America.

The New York Post reports before her transition, Thomas competed at Penn for three years as a male.

She set school records in the 200m freestyle and 500m freestyle in November. This past weekend the record-breaking stretch continued as Thomas set a university record in the 1500m freestyle.

Her teammate Anna Kalandadze finished in second place — more than 38 seconds behind Thomas.

A teammate of Thomas, wishing to remain anonymous, spoke to the website OutKick claiming members of the team have expressed displeasure over the situation to their coach, Mike Schnur.

“Pretty much everyone individually has spoken to our coaches about not liking this. Our coach just really likes winning. He’s like most coaches. I think secretly everyone just knows it’s the wrong thing to do,” the swimmer said.

“When the whole team is together we have to be like, ‘Oh my gosh, go Lia, that’s great, you’re amazing’. It’s very fake.”

Lia Thomas has been on a record-breaking spree. Photo: Instagram.

Her performances have divided opinion. Photo: Instagram

The bylaws of America’s National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) permit transgender athletes to compete as women after they have completed one year of testosterone suppression treatment.

While there has been some negative reaction to Thomas’ record-breaking efforts, many on social media have defended her right to compete. She is eligible to swim and is not breaking any rules, while her testosterone levels are the same as the competitors she is swimming against.

According to OutKick, Thomas’ teammate said it’s plausible Thomas could not only win national championships in women’s swimming, but break national women’s college records that were set by eventual Olympic gold medallists Missy Franklin and Katie Ledecky.

Thomas’ best times swimming as a woman at college level are about two seconds behind Franklin’s record in the 200m, and about 10 seconds and 56 seconds behind Ledecky’s in the 500m and 1500m respectively.

“The Ivy League is not a fast league for swimming, so that’s why it’s particularly ridiculous that we could potentially have an NCAA champion. That’s unheard of coming from the Ivy League,” the teammate said.

This article first appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced with permission