{"id":499551,"date":"2022-03-16T17:43:58","date_gmt":"2022-03-17T00:43:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=499551"},"modified":"2022-03-16T17:43:58","modified_gmt":"2022-03-17T00:43:58","slug":"texas-womens-alums-write-letter-on-lia-thomas-participation-in-ncaa-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/texas-womens-alums-write-letter-on-lia-thomas-participation-in-ncaa-championships\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Women’s Alums Write Letter on Lia Thomas’ Participation in NCAA Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texas Women’s Alums Write Letter on Lia Thomas’ Participation in NCAA Championships<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the eve of the women’s NCAA Championships, a group of Texas women’s alums sent a letter to Texas athletic director\u00a0Chris Del Conte<\/strong> and executive senior associate athletic director\u00a0Chris Plonsky<\/strong> regarding the participation of transgender swimmer\u00a0Lia Thomas<\/strong> in the meet. The letter was spearheaded by\u00a0Katy Arris-Wilson<\/strong>, who was part of Longhorns’ national-title-winning teams in 1990 and 1991, and it included many members of the 1991 team along with other top Texas swimmers in the 1980s, and the letter was also sent to NCAA President\u00a0Mark Emmert<\/strong> and the organization’s Board of Governors.<\/p>\n

In the letter, the group seeks to “implore the University to exercise its leadership and influence to protect women\u2019s swimming.” The letter discusses the importance of following current research to determine policies for transgender women’s participation in women’s sport, and the group praises USA Swimming legislation that establishes a detailed process for determining transgender eligibility<\/a>. Further, the letter repeatedly discusses fairness concerns around the possibility that Thomas could challenge records established by legends\u00a0Missy Franklin<\/strong> and\u00a0Katie Ledecky<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

As for the current NCAA Championships, the group recommends that Thomas only be allowed to compete as an exhibition swimmer at NCAAs and that if she would compete, that results not be made official until Thomas’ eligibility is confirmed and that any record Thomas set would not be permitted to count.<\/p>\n

Read the full text of the letter below:<\/p>\n

Dear Athletic Director Director Del Conte and Executive Sr Associate Athletic Director Plonsky,<\/p>\n

We write to express our concern regarding transgender women competing against biological women in NCAA swimming. As the class of 1990 UT National Championship team that recently raised over $180K to name the first lane in the Eddie Reese outdoor pool, we write to express our views and request information on how the University of Texas is responding to this threat to women\u2019s swimming, and all women\u2019s sports. Additional signatories to this letter outside of the 1990 team include UT alums who are National Champions, Olympians and UT Hall of Honor inductees from the 1980s. We implore the University to exercise its leadership and influence to protect women\u2019s swimming. Specifically we advocate for the adoption of our governing body\u2019s, USA Swimming, policy as the NCAA originally indicated it would. We also respectfully request specific steps be taken to appropriately categorize swims by transwoman Lia Thomas<\/strong> in the upcoming NCAA Championships.<\/p>\n

While we believe in the mission of the NCAA \u2013 to cultivate an environment that emphasizes academics, fairness and well-being across college sports – we feel that the NCAA has failed a large segment of its constituency with regards to fairness when making its most recent decision to allow transgender women to compete against biological females at the upcoming 2022 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships.<\/p>\n

Current science should be driving this decision. There is no ambiguity in the case of the University of Pennsylvania\u2019s transgender woman swimmer Lia Thomas. Her performances this past year offer compelling evidence that her period of testosterone suppression therapy was simply insufficient to mitigate her male puberty advantage thus creating an uneven playing field for the biological females against who she competes. Lia went from being ranked #462 as a male competing in the 200-yard freestyle to being ranked #1 as a transgender woman. What further evidence is needed?<\/p>\n

The NCAA\u2019s original transgender inclusion policy seems to have relied in part upon the opinion of Dr. Nick Gorton<\/strong> that \u201cTransgender student-athletes fall within the spectrum of physical traits found in athletes of their transitional gender, allowing them to compete fairly and equitably.\u201d Based on a search of the medical literature, it appears that Dr. Gorton has not performed any research studies in the field of physiology, specifically exercise physiology or sports medicine. It is also unclear whether Dr. Gorton has any special training in exercise physiology, formal research experience, or research publications that would make him an authority on this issue, despite him perhaps understanding its complexities from a personal perspective. Scientific research performed by properly trained research investigators using established scientific methodology that produces credible peer-reviewed scientific results should be the evidence used by the NCAA to make its decisions on this very important topic, not personal opinions.<\/p>\n

In addition, while the NCAA\u2019s Office of Inclusion developed the handbook, The Inclusion of Transgender Student-Athletes in NCAA Championships, a cursory review of this information raised additional questions. Other than the recent change in the allowable total serum testosterone level for the sport in which the student-athlete intends to compete, has the NCAA\u2019s transgender inclusion policy been reviewed\/revised since it was created in 2011? Page 10 of the handbook indicates that \u201cEducators in college athletics programs must develop thoughtful and informed practices that provide opportunities for all students, including transgender students, to participate in sports.\u201d We wholeheartedly agree with that statement. The handbook goes on to say, however, that \u201cThese practices must be based on sound medical science.\u201d Were the traits that give a student-athlete an advantage in a specific sport taken into consideration, such as the explosive skills required in the sport of swimming? Were the respective National Governing Boards asked to provide data that they may have captured while conducting their own research into the performance gap between male and female athletes in their sport? It is interesting to note that the \u201cA\u201d qualifying standard for Division I males in the 200-yard freestyle, for example, is nearly 12% faster than that of the standard for females. That is a significant difference when considering a sport where winning is determined by hundredths of a second.<\/p>\n

In an article shared by the NCAA\u2019s Media Center on October 29, 2020, it was noted that those who attended the NCAA Gender Identity and Student-Athlete Participation Summit remarked about \u201cthe glaring lack of research and available data\u201d in this area. Dr. Stephanie Chu, a member of the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sport remarked, \u201cWe need to be sure that the implementation of any policies or rules that may impact access to sport are appropriately evidence based. We need to look at what research there is, and if there isn’t enough, we need to start it. If there is, we need to really take a deep dive into the research.” Was a deep dive taken into the existing research in performance gaps between biological males and females before the NCAA made its most recent decision about acceptable testosterone levels?<\/p>\n

Such research does exist, and it supports the position that there are indeed performance gaps between men and women. A very recent longitudinal study found that \u201cthe performance gap between males and females becomes significant at puberty and often amounts to 10-50% depending on sport and event. The performance gap is more pronounced in sporting activities relying on muscle mass and explosive strength, particularly in the upper body. Longitudinal studies examining the effects of testosterone suppression on muscle mass and strength in transgender women consistently show very modest changes, where the loss of lean body mass, muscle area and strength typically amounts to approximately 5% after 12 months of treatment. Thus, the muscular advantage enjoyed by transgender women is only minimally reduced when testosterone is suppressed. Sports organizations should consider this evidence when reassessing current policies regarding participation of transgender women in the female category of sport.\u201d The researchers who conducted these studies have established research expertise in the field and as such, their work, and that of others like them, should be the basis of the NCAA\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

Based on current findings such as these, we implore the NCAA to, as they originally stated they would do, adhere to USA Swimming\u2019s updated transgender inclusion rules<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Otherwise, biological female student-athletes may lose scholarship opportunities, be displaced on trips to competitions, be denied the opportunity to score points for their team and a fair chance to set team, conference, and national records.<\/p>\n

We can only imagine that Lia Thomas\u2019 decision to transition in order to align the external appearance of her gender with her internal sense of self must have been very difficult. However, the decision to allow her to compete against biological females at the upcoming 2022 Women\u2019s NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships based on old data is, in our opinion, extremely unfair, and not in line with the sentiments expressed by Dr. Chu and others such as the NCAA\u2019s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Brian<\/strong>\u00a0 <\/b>, about the need to consider relevant research.<\/p>\n

We remember the time, so famously chronicled in the documentary The Last Gold<\/em> featuring our own Jill<\/strong> Sterkel<\/strong>, when East Germany was using performance enhancing drugs to create an unfair advantage for its female swimmers. Although Lia Thomas, per NCAA guidelines, is not taking performance-enhancing drugs, how is her situation any different? How can a testosterone level that is somewhere between four times (4X) and 20 times (20X) the typical threshold of biological females (according to the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai) not be considered performance-enhancing and an unfair advantage? While we respect Lia Thomas\u2019 right to express her true self, we feel it\u2019s important to recognize the impact that her participation will have on fair competition opportunities for biological females.<\/p>\n

Looking at the Lia Thomas situation from a broader perspective, we are gravely concerned for what the NCAA\u2019s stance on the participation of transgender women in collegiate competitions means for women\u2019s athletics in the long-term. The possibility exists that Lia Thomas may surpass times established by some of the NCAA\u2019s most prolific swimmers and some of the world\u2019s most highly accomplished biological females such as Missy<\/strong> Franklin<\/strong> and Katie<\/strong> Ledecky<\/strong>, the current NCAA record holders in the 200- and 500-yard freestyle, respectively. Records cannot be rolled back. Don\u2019t the legacies of biological females such as Missy Franklin and Katie Ledecky deserve to be preserved?<\/p>\n

While we need to make sure we do not exclude anyone based on their gender identity, we also need to balance inclusion with fairness. As such, we suggest the following in an effort to preserve opportunities for biological females in the short-term, while also making sure transgender women\u2019s rights to compete are honored:<\/p>\n