Tue Mar 22, 2022 AT 11:59 AM EDT
The 2022 NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships were underway in Atlanta last week, igniting a new round of heartbreak. University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas beat out an Olympic silver medalist to win an NCAA Division I title on Thursday, and is considered the “favorite” for other women’s events still to come.
That’s hardly surprising. Until 2019, Lia went by William and ranked #462 among male swimmers in the country. Now identifying as a woman, the swimmer has broken swimming records at every turn and could soon be the best swimmer competing in the women’s division in the history of the NCAA.
Thomas has become the face of the debate over transgender athletes, but the same story is playing out all over America. Female athletes who have dedicated their lives to their sport are seeing their opportunities erased by men dominating their field.
This is outrageous. Pitting females against males and pretending it’s still a fair competition makes a mockery of women’s sports and undermines the very reason athletics are separated by sex in the first place. Read Full Story