Transgender swimmer at the core of controversy over funding withdrawal at Penn vows to fight for trans inclusion in sports
“It’s so easy to feel isolated and alone and demoralized especially nowadays in the current political climate,” said former Penn swimmer Lia Thomas. “We have to stick together and support each other."
The transgender swimmer at the core of the controversy over the federal funding pause at the University of Pennsylvania said she will continue to stand up for inclusion of transgender people in sports.
“I am going to keep fighting as much as I am able to,” Lia Thomas said during a trans youth forum held on Zoom Saturday.
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump’s administration decided to pause $175 million in funding to Penn because the Ivy League university allowed Thomas to swim on the women’s team during the 2021-22 season after she had transitioned. She did not specifically address the president’s decision at the forum and did not respond to a previous request from The Inquirer for comment.
» READ MORE: Trump administration has paused $175 million in funding to Penn for allowing transgender athlete to compete
But during her hourlong talk, when she was interviewed by two cohosts, she said the trans community must stick together during this political time.
“It’s so easy to feel isolated and alone and demoralized especially nowadays in the current political climate,” she said. “In order to fight the battles we need to fight, we have to stick together and support each other.”
Thomas’ participation on Penn’s team drew national attention and stirred debate over trans athletes’ right to play sports. Thomas became an Ivy League champion and broke records at the women’s swimming and diving championships held at Harvard University in February 2022.
» READ MORE: Penn president says federal government has halted $175 million in research funding to faculty
During the Zoom, Thomas did not specifically discuss the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s ban of transgender athletes in women’s sports that was enacted earlier this year in response to a Trump order. Nor did she speak specifically about the lawsuit filed last month by some of her former Penn teammates, seeking to strip her of the national championship title she won.
But she said she was “devastated” when the World Aquatics governing body several years ago banned transgender women who have been through male puberty from competing in women’s races. She lost a legal challenge to that ruling last year.
“Those first moments, I just felt so devastated and grief over losing this access to my sport,” she said. “After that initial wave passed, there was no doubt in my mind I was going to fight this. This is my sport, too.”
She said transgender people need to have a safe environment to compete, “a place they feel safe and affirmed, that they don’t feel uncomfortable.”
It’s the athletes who should be able to choose their competition category, she asserted.
Thomas has said in a previous interview that she did not transition for a competitive advantage, but “to be happy, to be true to myself.”
During the Zoom, Thomas, a native of Austin, Texas, said she likely would have transitioned much sooner but didn’t have access to trans people or education about it when she was growing up.
“I didn’t even really know it was a thing until the second half of high school,” she said.
She remembers thinking if she could have been born a girl, she would have, but wasn’t able to “contextualize” that feeling and “assumed it was a quirk of puberty and dismissed it for a long time.”
Before college, she said she “had the realization that I was trans.”
She performed on the men’s team as a freshman and sophomore and competed in a few meets as a junior before COVID-19 canceled the next season. She returned in August 2021 for her senior year as a member of the women’s team and posted some of the fastest times in the nation among college women.
She said she thinks people don’t understand the importance of athletes’ mental state in driving their performance. It’s as important, if not more, than the physical aspect, she said.
Thomas recalled the heavy depression she felt her sophomore year before transitioning and how that impacted her swimming ability. Once on the women’s team, she said she was much happier and “that happiness translated into feeling better in the water and being able to give my all in a way that I wasn’t able to before and that showed in my results.”
Three of her former teammates sued the school last month, saying inclusion of the trans athlete violated their rights. Thomas’ participation “deprived” the swimmers of “equal opportunities as women to compete and win,” the suit alleged. And they said giving Thomas access to the women’s locker room failed to protect their privacy.
Trump, a day after the suit was filed, signed an executive order banning transgender athletes from women’s sports, and the federal Education Department subsequently opened an investigation into Penn over reported “violations of Title IX” in athletics.
Asked to create her “ultimate dream team,” Thomas, who has retired from the sport, said she hopes to one day have a swim team specifically for trans people.
Thomas said she envisions “a safe space for trans youth to feel comfortable in the water and for me to be able to share my love of the pool and swimming … and for everybody just to have fun.”