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In response to the NCAA’s recently updated transgender policy, Lia Thomas’ teammates have spoken out against her.
Sixteen members of the University of Pennsylvania’s women’s swimming team, in a letter sent Thursday to school and Ivy League officials, asked that they not take legal action challenging the recent policy change. The updated NCAA policy has the power to remove Thomas, a transgender woman, from competing at next month’s NCAA championships.
Thomas competed for the Penn men’s team for three seasons before undergoing more than two years of hormone replacement therapy as part of her transition. She now competes on the Penn women’s swim team, and has dominated NCAA competition: She has posted the fastest times of any female college swimmer in two separate events this season.
Thomas’ dominance in the women’s field has sparked debate about competitive fairness within the Quakers’ team and throughout the sport.
“We fully support Lia Thomas in her decision to affirm her gender identity and to transition from a man to a woman. Lia has every right to live her life authentically,” the letter from her teammates read, per the Washington Post. “However, we also recognize that when it comes to sports competition, that the biology of sex is a separate issue from someone’s gender identity. Biologically, Lia holds an unfair advantage over competition in the women’s category, as evidenced by her rankings that have bounced from #462 as a male to #1 as a female.
“If she were to be eligible to compete against us, she could now break Penn, Ivy, and NCAA Women’s Swimming records; feats she could never have done as a male athlete.”
The NCAA’s Board of Governors voted in support of a sport-by-sport approach to transgender participation, allowing each sport’s national governing body to regulate its competition. Transgender athletes will be required to document sport-specific testosterone levels prior to the start of their respective season.
On Tuesday, USA Swimming, the sport’s national governing body, announced its policy toward eligibility criteria for transgender athletes in elite sports. Per the policy, a three-person panel of independent medical experts will determine whether a swimmer has a competitive advantage due to her prior physical development as a man. In addition, the concentration of testosterone in a swimmer’s blood must not exceed a certain threshold.
Thomas’ teammates did not identify themselves in the letter, but it is far from the first time her teammates have spoken about the subject. Earlier this week, a group of swimmers on the team released a statement in support of Thomas, which was in reaction to a different teammate telling Fox News that Thomas had a “monumental” advantage over her teammates and competitors.
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