A transgender swimmer’s record-breaking wins at the University of Pennsylvania have renewed concern over the future of women’s sports.
Lia Thomas, a transgender student at the Ivy League university, dominated the 500-yard freestyle preliminaries and finals at the Zippy Invitational at the University of Akron this month. Thomas earned a winning time of 4:34.06 in the finals, breaking the national record, and set new school records in the 1,650-yard freestyle and 200-yard freestyle competitions.
Thomas previously competed as a man for three years on the school’s men’s team. Thomas’ success on the women’s team has renewed criticism over allowing transgender women to compete against biological females.
Even some of Thomas’ own teammates are angry about what they see as a lack of fairness.
“Most of the women are too afraid to speak out against this. But they must,” tweeted Megyn Kelly.
“If Michael Phelps began competing as a transgender woman, all hell would break loose – so why is nothing being done to stop trans athletes like Lia Thomas from destroying women’s sport?” tweeted Piers Morgan.
