Lia Thomas had secured her first NCAA title earlier this week when she won women’s 500 yard freestyle. That performance was followed up by two lackluster swims. Thomas finished 8th in the 100 yard freestyle race at the NCAA Division I women’s championships.
This is the final race for the controversial swimmer considering she’s wrapping her college swimming career.
Thomas, 22, had tied for 5th earlier yesterday in the 200 yard freestyle. Thomas endured months of backlash, having broken multiple records for UPenn. The whole situation highlighted how ill equipped NCAA was to deal with the unique situation.
It was not all fun and games for Thomas – she was repeatedly met with boos and notable silence during the races. To make the whole ordeal even stranger, There was another transgender swimmer in the finals, Iszac Henig. Henig is a female to male trans swimmer that opts out of HRT in order to keep being eligible to pursue swimming in the women’s division. Henig had undergone top surgery and was previously the only one able to defeat Thomas during an Ivy league race.
Both of the swimmers celebrated after the race together. They both showcased the writing on their arms ‘Let trans kids play’.
Henig told ESPN after the fact:
‘We’re not allowed to have anything on our clothes, but the rules don’t say anything about our skin,’ he said. ‘So I took the platform I was hoping to have to say that trans athletes are just like any other athlete.’
The backlash has been significantly smaller for Henig – due to the fact that he’s abstaining from HRT.
Thomas was previously condemned by everyone from Joe Rogan to Caitlyn Jenner.
Rogan was recently a guest on podcast of fellow comedian Tim Dillon and addressed the matter:
“Once you say you’re trans and everybody says okay I’ll fight her – Fine. I’m fine with that. And in fact MMA is one of the best places for that because you know exactly who your opponent is.”
“Unlike like this swimmer. Was it UPenn? Is that what it is? The swimmer that’s like lapping all these biological women, that’s f—-d because they don’t have a choice they have to compete. “
Caitlyn Jenner guested on Fox News yesterday and explained she blames NCAA for allowing this to happen:
‘I don’t think biological boys should compete in women’s sports – we have to protect women’s sports,’ Caitlyn said. ‘That’s the bottom line.’
Once Jenner was slammed for this take on social media she replied: ‘No, I just had the balls to stand up for women and girls in sports,’