Lia Thomas: Second UPenn swimmer slams trans athlete competing for women's team
A second female swimmer from the University of Pennsylvania has shown her anger and frustration over transgender Lia Thomas competing for the women's team. The anonymous source spoke to Outkick after Thomas won the 1,650-yard freestyle by beating Anna Sofia Kalandadze by 38 seconds at the Zippy Invitational Event in Akron, Ohio.
The furious swimmer said, “They feel so discouraged because no matter how much work they put in it, they're going to lose. Usually, they can get behind the blocks and know they out-trained all their competitors and they're going to win and give it all they've got. Now they're having to go behind the blocks knowing no matter what, they do not have the chance to win. I think that it's really getting to everyone.”
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She continued, “Usually everyone claps, everyone is yelling and cheering when someone wins a race. Lia touched the wall and it was just silent in there. When fellow Penn swimmer Anna Kalandadze finished second, the crowd erupted in applause.”
As per reports, what is more frustrating for the fellow swimmers is when Thomas competed as a male named Will in the All-Ivy league during the 2018-19 season, she did not even make the first-team. But now, she’s breaking records – winning three events and setting three new school records, including two new Ivy League records.
The unidentified woman also accused Thomas of bragging about her victories. She alleged that the trans woman told her teammates, “That was so easy, I was cruising. At least I'm still No. 1 in the country.” OutKick's source then explained, “Well, obviously she's No. 1 in the country because she's at a clear physical advantage after having gone through male puberty and getting to train with testosterone for years.”
She added: “Honestly, this is so upsetting to us because we want to be acknowledged for our hard work, but it seems like this just keeps overshadowing us. Put Lia out of the picture — we have a really good team this year. We have one of the best teams we've had in years, and that's being overshadowed by [Lia]. Even without Lia, we had the chance to win the Ivy League this year, which is a huge deal for us. We train every single day and give up so much for this sport. And I love swimming. I do it because I love it. It's been a part of my life forever, and this is a slap in the face that the NCAA doesn't care about the integrity of women's sports.”
The source pointed out that though authorities claim that they care about them, “Our interests are in direct conflict with the interests of Lia in regards to fair competition and getting to compete. While we support Lia as a person to make decisions for her own life, you cannot make that decision and then come and impede on other people and their rights," the source continued. "Your right doesn't supersede everyone else's right.”
“I don't know what the solution is, but I know this is not it. Because people talk about how the trans community might've been marginalized before and this is supposed to be helping, but you can't help the trans community by marginalizing [biological] women. know no matter what, biological women will never be on an equal playing field with transgender females,” she noted.
Before this, one more swimmer spoke against Thomas’ participation in the women’s team. She refuted the trans woman’s claim that she has full support from the team. She claimed, “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. 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 anonymous first source added: “On paper, if Lia Thomas gets back down to Will Thomas' best times, those numbers are female world records. Faster than all the times [Olympic swimmer] Katie Ledecky went in college. Faster than any other Olympian you can think of. His times in three events are [female] world records.”