{"id":496772,"date":"2022-02-09T19:36:04","date_gmt":"2022-02-10T02:36:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=496772"},"modified":"2022-02-13T08:29:10","modified_gmt":"2022-02-13T15:29:10","slug":"penn-swimmers-cannot-express-opinions-on-lia-thomas-athletes-shut-down-by-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/penn-swimmers-cannot-express-opinions-on-lia-thomas-athletes-shut-down-by-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Penn Swimmers Cannot Express Opinions on Lia Thomas; Athletes Shut Down By School"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nancy Hogshead-Makar: Penn Swimmers Cannot Express Opinions on Lia Thomas<\/strong><\/p>\n

Olympic gold medalist and women’s sports advocate\u00a0Nancy Hogshead-Makar<\/strong> has been one of the strongest voices in the current controversy regarding whether transgender female athletes such as Lia Thomas <\/strong>should be allowed to compete at the NCAA Championships. Hogshead-Makar has argued against Thomas’ inclusion because she believes Thomas would be competing with a biological advantage over cisgender females.<\/p>\n

In an interview on the Smerconish Show on Sirius XM radio, Hogshead-Makar told host Michael Smerconish<\/strong> that it would be impossible to prioritize both inclusion and fairness for transgender athletes. “I would say that for all events that are in the pool, I would say, ‘no.’ I wish we could say otherwise,” Hogshead-Makar said. “The shorter the event, the less likely it is that somebody is going to be able to mitigate what male puberty gives somebody.”<\/p>\n

Recently, Hogshead-Makar helped pen a statement on behalf of 16 members of the Penn’s women team who believe that Thomas racing at the upcoming\u00a0 NCAA Championships would create an unfair competitive environment<\/a>. This group of Penn women want the school and the Ivy League to refrain from suing the NCAA to try to get Thomas into the meet. Currently, it is unclear if the NCAA would adopt<\/a> new USA Swimming rules regarding transgender athletes<\/a>, even though the NCAA recently announced it would be deferring to individual sports’ national governing bodies to create policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the interview with Smerconish, Hogshead-Makar expressed concern that Penn swimmers with misgivings about Thomas competing in women’s events were not allowed to share those thoughts publicly.<\/p>\n

“Whenever the swimmers have expressed any discomfort or any second thoughts or want to talk about it with leaders at Penn or with their coaches, they are shut down right away. There’s no room for them to say anything. They have been told that if they speak out, they will never get a job again, that corporate America will Google their name and say, ‘Transphobe, we don’t want that.’ They’ve been told that they can’t do anything,” Hogshead-Makar said.<\/p>\n

“Can you imagine going to workout every day and going to training camp and having thoughts and feelings, very strong ones, and not be able to communicate them? Not be able to talk even amongst your peers, to really feel shut down about the whole thing. It’s really, really hard for them.”<\/p>\n

Hogshead-Makar articulated significant concern about those opposed to Thomas’ participation being labeled as “transphobic.” The CEO of the organization Champion Women explained that individuals can support transgender rights and acceptance while still arguing for holding sporting events on the basis of biology.<\/p>\n

“I think that calling someone transphobic is a way to shut someone down,” Hogshead-Makar said. “It’s a way to marginalize whatever their opinion is. You can be supportive of trans people, and you want them to thrive in life, and you want them to be who they are, and you don’t want any discrimination going on in employment, in the classroom or in public accommodations, but to recognize that there is biology, that there is a difference between men and women. There are very few places where biology really matters, and competitive sports is one of those. In competitive sports, we need to make sure that women have equal opportunities to complete.”<\/p>\n

Watch the full interview with Hogshead-Makar and Smerconish<\/a> below on the Lia Thomas debate:<\/p>\n