Lia Thomas Timeline: How the Heated Debate Over Transgender Inclusion Has Evolved

Male becomes female? Saying so doesn’t make it so.

The “Lia” (Will) Thomas spectacle has one benefit: it brings to national attention the insanity of permitting biological males to compete in biological female athletic events.

It’s done so more prominently than in some other such cases because Thomas’s presumably un-tapered 200 free time in December (1:41.93) was already faster than last year’s winning NCAA Division One women’s championship time; and Thomas’s 500 free December time (4:34:06) — like the 200 free, with no serious competition — would only have missed last year’s first-place 500 performance by 0.45 second.

Further, both of those December performances show potential capacity for setting new NCAA women’s records (over Missy Franklin and Katie Ledecky times, respectively), by someone who is not in fact a woman — i.e., by someone not sporting XX chromosomes.

Failure of Thomas to challenge those records would likely mean that Thomas was either ill or had bagged his races for PR reasons, as seems to have occurred in at least one dual meet this month.

Meanwhile, significant displacements of legitimate female competitors have already occurred — in Connecticut high school sports, for example. There, two biological males began competing in girls’ track in 2017. Within that season and the two following, the biological males were awarded 15 state-champion titles, taken in 2016 by nine different girls.

It’s time for all the regulatory bodies in sport to reject the ideology and harmful politics of transgenderism, especially insofar as they interfere with girls’ and women’s interests, dedication, and rewards in sport.

FINA and the IOC seem finally to have caught up somewhat to doping cases in athletics. Now, as Swimming World Editor in Chief John Lohn has noted, Thomas’s core physiology gives him advantages over females which the latter will never have — and the effect is at least as pronounced as that which benefited drug-enhanced East German female athletes in the 70s.

USA Swimming and the NCAA need now to catch up to reality themselves.

In 1973, as a young coach seeking to learn from the masters, I visited the legendary George Haines and his world-renowned Santa Clara Swim Club program. As it turned out, the East Germans themselves had arrived for joint practices. The doping charges then were only rumors, but the East German girls had noticeable superiorities, in musculature alone.

Were I still coaching now, I’d refuse any formal competition of the grossly unfair sort which is introduced by post-pubertal XY males (allegedly testosterone-suppressed or not) “competing” with genuine XX females.

Girls and women struggled for a long time, even in the largely egalitarian sport of swimming, to be accorded the importance and appreciation which attended men’s swimming for some years after Johnny Weismuller’s performances in the 1920s.

To continue allowing Thomas’s involvement in NCAA women’s swimming (along with others like him), on up to and including the 2022 Women’s NCAA championship and the asterisks which would be needed, will do immense damage to the sport, and to the aspirations of the young women who participate in it.

The same kinds of perverse imbalances may be occurring already in high school swimming, as they have in high school girls’ track meets.

Stop the insanity!

Lia can decide in his mind that he wants to be a woman but he will never be one because he’s a MAN. Let’s be real here. When he competed on the men’s team he was ranked somewhere like 462. He transitions to be “called” a woman, joins the women’s team and is now ranked number 1. LIA THOMAS IS A CHEATER. End of story. All of his wins have a big fat asterisk next to them. They are not legitimate. If he were still racing against men, we wouldn’t even know his name.

this is as unacceptable as are hormones or steroids . since the beginning of drug testing for sports. there is no difference.

The men’s ncaa winning time was 4.06.

A male trying to be a woman should NOT be allowed to compete in any women’s sports! Guess “he/she” couldn’t win as a man so decided to become a woman so “she” could win! NOT A FAIR COMPETITION! STOP THIS FROM HAPPENING! You don’t see a transwoman competing against men! Not a fair competition for the women that have been working hard to win in their own events!

He should compete as a woman, as he doesn’t the necessary equipment to compete as a man. I lay the blame for this situation on women swimmers. If the other swimmers left the natatorium when IT arrives the controversary would be over.

These men are highly confused. They have a self identity crisis going on in their heads. I would have to say the same for the swimming officials. Screw your feelings! I’m 45 yrs old but since I feel 65 yrs old then I should be granted my social Security benefits now. The administration should agree. The person whom you were born Shall be the person you will compete. If officials allow this then they taint the sport with this defiant in nature matter. What the hell has this world !!