Transgender Swimmer Beats Florida Olympian To Make History In NCAA Championship

ATLANTA, GA — Lia Thomas made history Thursday night when she became the first transgender woman to win an NCAA swimming championship at Georgia Tech.

Taking control of the final 100 yards in the 500-yard freestyle race, Lia Thomas, a University of Pennsylvania senior, eked out a win against Sarasota swimmer Emma Weyant, an Olympic silver medalist.

Thomas swam the race in a personal season-best time of 4 minutes, 33.24 seconds, just ahead of Weyant, a University of Virginia swimmer, who finished the race in second place with a time of 4 minutes, 34.99 seconds.

UVA’s athletics department tweeted that Weyant completed the race in the third-fastest time in the university’s history.

Erica Sullivan of the University of Texas took third place in the race and Brooke Forde with Stanford University came in fourth. Sullivan was also a silver medalist in the Tokyo Olympics, swimming in the 1,500-meter freestyle event there.

Both Sullivan and Weyant shook hands with Thomas in the water following the race, according to Newsweek.

While Weyant hasn't commented on the race, yet, many others have commented about it on social media.

A Getty Images photo also shows Weyant, Sullivan and Forde posing for a photo together on the third-place platform after the race with a divide between them and Thomas, who is standing on the first-place platform alone. It's uncertain whether this was an intended statement by the three swimmers.

The inclusion of transgender athletes in women’s sports has been considered controversial by some, and there were some protesters at Thursday’s championship race carrying banners that read “Save Women’s Sports,” both outside the facility and in the stands, the Associated Press reported.

"I try to ignore it as much as I can," Thomas told ESPN. "I try to focus on my swimming, what I need to do to get ready for my races. And just try to block out everything else."

She claimed her second title Friday morning, winning the 200-meter freestyle final, reports said.

After Thursday’s race, many responded on social media to Thomas’ win, some arguing that she had an unfair advantage in the competition.

In a Facebook post Thursday night, Sarasota County Commissioner Christian Ziegler wrote that Weyant “was robbed…after finishing just after a MALE athlete.”

“Again. Emma was the FIRST FEMALE to finish in the WOMENS event, yet was awarded the 2nd place trophy,” he wrote. “What a sham. Emma is the legitimate Champ and this makes me furious for my 3 girls losing their opportunity to fairly compete in women’s sports.”

Angela Morabito, former press secretary for the Department of Education under President Donald Trump’s administration, tweeted Thursday, “Round of applause for Emma Weyant, the UVA swimmer who placed second in the 500y freestyle tonight, behind Lia Thomas. Second is the new first.

Evangelical pastor Erik Reed tweeted Thursday, “Here’s the name you should remember and lobby for: Emma Weyant. She’s at UVA. She finished second place, but would have been first place if people had the courage to speak up about the injustice of a MAN competing against women.”

In February, more than 300 current and former NCAA, Team USA and international swimmers and divers signed and released an open letter in support of Thomas to the NCAA.

“We, the undersigned members of the swimming community, support and welcome transgender and nonbinary athletes in our sport. With this letter, we express our support for Lia Thomas, and all transgender college athletes, who deserve to be able to participate in safe and welcoming athletic environments. We urge you to not allow political pressure to compromise the safety and wellbeing of college athletes everywhere,” the athletes wrote.

They added, “We love swimming for the lifelong, invaluable lessons it has taught us about hard work, discipline, and the power of being part of a team. No one should be denied the opportunity to have their life changed through swimming simply because of who they are.”

Neither Weyant nor Forde signed the letter, though third-place winner Sullivan added her name to it.

Thomas has followed NCAA and Ivy League rules since she began her transition in 2019 by starting hormone replacement therapy, according to AP.

There’s been debate about whether trans athletes retain a physical advantage in sports with differing findings and opinions.

A 2020 study of transgender members of U.S. Air Force published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that “in transwomen, hormone therapy rapidly reduces Hgb to levels seen in cisgender women,” but trans women athletes could retain a physical advantage during the first three years of hormone therapy.

“Hormone therapy decreases strength, LBM and muscle area, yet values remain above that observed in cisgender women, even after 36 months. These findings suggest that strength may be well preserved in transwomen during the first 3 years of hormone therapy,” according to the UK study.

But Dr. Tim Roberts, a researcher on that study, told CBS8 that these physical differences are seen primarily within the first year of hormone therapy.

By the second year of this therapy, “the performance of the transgender women was indistinguishable from the performance of the average cis woman in the Air Force,” he said.

Roberts also expressed concern that the study has been misrepresented when used to support legislation banning trans student athletes from competing in school sports

“They're cherry-picking the one number that agrees with their pre-existing notions and using it as an excuse to do a lot of other things,” he said.

The organization Gender Justice, which focuses on trans equity in sports, has also argued that trans women athletes don’t have a physical advantage against their competition.

“Every person’s body is different. There’s no scientific evidence that the average trans athlete is any bigger, stronger, or faster than the average cis athlete. Trans women are women. Different athletes have advantages over one another all of the time,” the group wrote on its website. “Athletic performance depends on many complicated factors: access to better coaches and facilities; money to pay for nutritionists, recovery services; and many others. At the highest levels of sport, physical characteristics can only get you so far — you also need serious technical skill, training and access to resources.”