Trans swimmer Lia Thomas eyes Olympics as she dismisses docs that say she has unfair advantage
Trans swimmer Lia Thomas declared on Tuesday, May 31, that she must be allowed to compete as a woman and that she "doesn't need permission" from anyone, despite several medical experts highlighting her physical advantage.
The 22-year-old swimmer spoke out during an appearance on 'Good Morning America' on Tuesday while revealing her hopes to represent the US in the Olympics someday. Thomas's remarks came after a number of doctors suggested that trans female athletes like her would always have an unfair advantage simply because they cannot undo puberty, during which the male anatomy is flooded with testosterone.
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Thomas admitted that she's "no medical expert" but claimed some cisgender females had more testosterone, had bigger hands and feet, and were taller than their peers -- so she shouldn't be banned if they weren't. "I don't need anybody's permission to be myself," she said, before declaring that anyone who is against her competing as a woman is transphobic, even if they support her right to transition. "You can't go halfway and be like 'I support trans people but only to a certain point,'" she continued. "If you support transwomen and they've met all the N.C.A.A. requirements, I don't know if you can say something like that. Trans women are not a threat to women's sport."
Thomas dismissed the controversy surrounding her, saying she was now happy. "There's a lot of factors that go into a race and how well you do. The biggest change for me is that I'm happy and sophomore year where I had my best times competing with men, I was miserable," the controversial athlete explained. "Having that be lifted is incredibly relieving and allows me to put my all into training and racing."
She said she didn't transition to fare better in the league tables. "Trans people don't transition for athletics. We transition to be happy and authentic and to be ourselves," she claimed. "Transition to get an advantage is not something that factors into our decisions." Thomas also claimed she was prepared to give up swimming in order to transition, and that she wasn't sure she would be allowed to compete as a woman. She said she became slower in the water shortly after beginning hormone replacement therapy (HRT). "I'm not a medical expert but there's a lot of variation among cis female athletes. There are cis women who are tall muscular and have more testosterone. Should that also disqualify them?" Thomas argued.
Nonetheless, medical experts believe Thomas has an unfair advantage that cannot be reversed because she underwent puberty before starting HRT. Furthermore, some said even four years of therapy is not enough to reverse what happens to male teens when they come of age. Mayo Clinic doctor Michael J. Joyner told The New York Times that "there are social aspects to sport, but physiology and biology underpin it. Testosterone is the 800-pound gorilla." And in a recent appearance on Good Morning America, Joyner added, "Body size, hand size, foot size, bone density [are all factors] but the main thing is the interactions of exercise training and muscle. I think that evidence so far would suggest a period of a year, two, three, or even four years [of hormone therapy] is insufficient." Meanwhile, sports physiologist Dr. Ross Tucker said that Thomas "is the manifestation of the scientific evidence. The reduction in testosterone did not remove her biological advantage."
Thomas's female competitors were blown out of the water after she started transitioning at the age of 19. She has since soared to the top of the women's leaderboards, despite being previously unheard of as a male athlete. Thomas shrugged off the doctors' comments as she revealed her hopes to compete in the Olympics someday. "It's been a goal of mine to swim at Olympic trials for a very long time. I would love to see that through," she said.