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Amid a record-breaking season, University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas is making waves, both literally and figuratively, as the transgender athlete continues to dominate in the pool.
Her success in women’s swimming has prompted intense criticism from many outside the sport. Now an anonymous teammate has taken aim at Thomas in an interview with the conservative website OutKick, alleging that Thomas is a source of friction among the women’s swim team at Penn.
“Pretty much everyone individually has spoken to our coaches about not liking this. Our coach [Mike Schnur] just really likes winning. He’s like most coaches. I think secretly everyone just knows it’s the wrong thing to do,” the teammate told OutKick in a story published Thursday.
The anonymous teammate went on to express concerns that records broken by Thomas will remain out of reach in the future. OutKick says that it granted the teammate anonymity because she feared that speaking on the record would harm her employment prospects after she graduates.
Thomas joined the women’s team this year after competing for Penn on the men’s swim team for three seasons.
In an interview with the website SwimSwam, Thomas said she began transitioning in 2019. “I first realized I was trans the summer before, in 2018. There was a lot of uncertainty, I didn’t know what I would be able to do, if I would be able to keep swimming. And so, I decided to swim out the 2018–2019 year as a man, without coming out, and that caused a lot of distress to me.”
Thomas told SwimSwam that the summer of 2020 marked one full year of testosterone suppression for her, but the 2020–21 Ivy League swim season was canceled due to COVID-19.
According to NCAA policy, “A trans female treated with testosterone suppression medication may continue to compete on a men’s team but may not compete on a women’s team without changing it to a mixed team status until completing one year of testosterone suppression treatment.”
