University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas broke down her silence on Thursday, amid outrage at her breaking women’s records in swimming. She praised the IOC’s controversial rules for transgender athletes while noting her strength and muscle loss.
SwimSwam’s transgender swimming star gave an interview lasting 26 minutes to SwimSwam. She praised the fairness and integrity of controversial IOC guidelines regarding inclusivity, and said they kept ‘competitional integrity’ going.
Thomas, who was a member of the UPenn men’s swimming team for three years, before switching to the women’s, continues to set new records in the pool, breaking three school records and two Ivy League records during a weekend meet. However, her successes have sparked a heated national debate that has upset her fellow UPenn team members.
A female swimmer from UPenn spoke out in a fiery interview with OutKick. She expressed her frustration at Mike Schnur allowing a transgender person to compete for the female spot, saying that he ‘just likes winning’.
Thomas, 22 years old, spoke out in a SwimSwam interview on Thursday about her acceptance of IOC guidelines for transgender and intersex athletes.
She said that she thought the guidelines were very helpful and did a good job of encouraging inclusion while maintaining competitional integrity.
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SwimSwam interviewee Lia Thomas (Transgender University Penn Swimmer) discusses the fairness in IOC guidelines for transgender athletes. Lia also talks about how she lost muscle and strength after almost breaking a world-record.
The Zippy Invitational video on Sunday shows Thomas beating her nearest competitors, as well as consistently being ahead in the women’s 1,650 yard-freestyle.
Unidentified female UPenn swimmer stated that she had spoken with her teammates about Thomas’s (right) position on the team, but that he ‘just loves winning’.
She explained that each sport must establish eligibility criteria to determine what constitutes unfair advantage. ‘Everybody is able to compete in the category they’re most comfortable with unless there’s a proven unfair advantage that they have.’
New guidelines will replace the IOC’s old stance and say there shouldn’t be any presumption trans women are automatically better than other women.
However, individual sports associations will be able to set their own trans-athlete rules.
Before her transition, Thomas competed for the school’s men’s team for three years as Will until November 2019.
She shared that she realized she was trans in 2018, while competing on the men’s team. But ‘being a woman competing in a men’s meet’ caused ‘a lot of distress’ and mental health struggles. Thomas experienced ‘a lot anxiety’ and felt “trapped” in a man’s body.
Thomas started transitioning in May 2019, and was released to her team early in the fall 2019. Thomas completed a year-long hormone treatment as mandated by NCAA. She submitted documentation detailing her year and was then approved for a switch to the women’s team.
She was unable to play more than four games due to COVID.
Thomas started competing in the women’s division this season after almost two and a quarter years of hormone treatment.
‘I’ve experienced a lot of muscle loss and strength loss’ but she explained it’s an ‘ongoing process’ with ‘no clear end point.’ She continues to take hormone blockers, including estrogen, every day.
Lia Thomas was victorious in three events this weekend and she also set three school records, including two Ivy League records. On December 3, she set the record in the 500 yard freestyle.
Recently, the UPenn swimming team posted about Lia’s record in 500m freestyle (pictured).
Anna Sofia Kalandaze from the University of Pennsylvania, who is pictured above finishing behind Thomas, was in the freestyle 1,650-yard race.
She admits that she is ‘no where close’ to the times and paces she held when competing on the men’s team before her transition but hopes to work her way back to those times.
OutKick spoke with the unidentified UPenn swimmer, who noted that Thomas was already setting records for male swimmers. She also said that if Lia ‘gets down to Will Thomas’ best times’, these numbers would be female world records.
Katie Ledecky was a college student who went faster than any other. You can’t think of a faster Olympian. He won three of his events in record time. [female]World records.
OutKick reports that Thomas was a member of the men’s team for three years at UPenn. His best times were in the 200 Free at 1.39:31 and 500 Free at 4.18:72. He also recorded 1,650 at 14.54:76.
Olympic gold medalists hold the NCAA records in these events for women. Missy Franklin currently holds the 200 free record at 1;39:10. Katie Ledecky established the records at 4:14:06 for the 500-Free and at 15:03,31 for the 1,650-Free.
Thomas competed on the women’s team in this season’s 200 free at 1:41.93 and 500 at 4:34.06 respectively, while Thomas also swam for the 1,650-free at 15:59.71.
Thomas said her pre-transition times are not an accurate gage for her ‘current ability’ but admitted that she did not train as often or as hard in her year off as she did when competing on the men’s team.
She also noted her teammates as a continued support system through her transition and the national criticism she has since faced.
Thomas’ success has caused outrage in the face of controversy surrounding transgender athletes participating alongside those who are not their gender. Many claim that a “man” broke many women’s records. Lia 2020
“The team has been unbelieveably supportive since the beginning. You know, my teammates and coaches I feel extremely supported. She said she was treated as any other woman on the team.
OutKick was told by the female swimmer that her support wasn’t real.
‘When the whole team is together, we have to be like, “Oh my gosh, go Lia, that’s great, you’re amazing.“ It’s very fake,’ she said.
Outkick heard that a majority of Ivy League athletes have spoken with their coaches to express disapproval. “Our coach loves winning. Like most coaches, he’s like that. It’s something that I believe everyone knows in secret.
Thomas mentions Mike Schnur as her coach and her support in her switch to the women’s team. She calls him one of her biggest supporters and allies since day one.
Thomas said that Mike was a great supporter and teammate.
Schnur’s UPenn bio page lists Schnur’s pronouns in the following order: ‘he’, ‘him’, ‘his’. According to Schnur’s bio, he is married and has one child. He runs both men’s as well women’s practices.
DailyMail.com reached out to Schnur but she did not reply.
Thomas indicated that he felt at ease during his transition, and was ‘thrilled’ about being able to swim again. He has been swimming since the age of five. ‘It’s been a huge part of my life for as long as I can remember,’ she said.
“Pre-transition, there was much uncertainty regarding my future swimming. I wasn’t sure if I would be able swim at all. So I am just happy to be able continue swimming. It’s a passion of mine to compete, and it is a joy to see what my speed can reach. Thomas explained, “It’s kind of an ongoing evolution in what I believe I can do based on how I train.”
While Thomas ‘‘expected some measure of pushback’ on her place on the women’s team, she admitted she didn’t anticipate ‘the extent it has blown up.’
Thomas made national headlines this week as the center of the ongoing debate surrounding regulations for transgender athletes after breaking records at the Zippy Invitational Event last weekend- beating her teammate Anna Sofia Kalandaze out of first place by 38 seconds at the swim meet.
Thomas set national records during the weekend at Akron’s collegiate swim meet. Thomas’ winning time for the 1,650-meter freestyle race was 15:59:71, less than a minute off Ledecky’s world-record pace.
Thomas starts out nearly one lap ahead of her nearest competitor in video from the Zippy Inviteal.
She completed the race at a faster pace than any of her rivals, setting a new lap record.
Thomas’ victory was an unprecedented achievement at both the Zippy Invitational and the pool where it took place.
Thomas will also be eligible to participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) national championship meets in Atlanta, Georgia in March 2022. Last season, five of the NCAA champions swimmers broke 16 minutes.
It was the third record Thomas was able to set at the Zippy meet over the weekend, which led to criticism on social media.
Jessica Cole stated, “This should be outraged by every person that has ever advocated women in sports,”
Claude Gregory stated that this was a disgrace to all female swimmers who worked hard.
Linda Blade, a sport performance coach, responded to Thomas’ latest event with the following statement: “Well of course women’s records are being broken!” Lia competed in the #NCAA as a man for her first three years. It isn’t right!
#SexBasedSports must be reintroduced! #SexNotGender is needed to ensure fairness and equality for female athletes.
One participant said, “How many people participated in this swim meet without any of them standing up and saying this is wrong?”
A third said: “How can anyone look at this and think that Lia Thomas should swim against women?”
Another user was outraged that his daughters, who swim competitively, have ‘worked their a**es off’ to get where they are for Thomas to dominate the sport.
“My two daughters compete in swimming. They swim 3-4 days a week, almost all year. Many of my girls work hard for many years, sometimes even decades. I am disgusted by this kind of crap. It isn’t progress.
Thomas’s record-breaking times allowed UPenn to place second in the competition, although it did not go down well with her fellow competitors.
‘There are a bunch of comments on the Internet about how, “Oh, these girls are just letting this happen. They should just boycott or protest.“ At the end of the day, it’s an individual sport. OutKick heard from a teammate that protesting the sport would be detrimental to their own health as they will lose out on everything we worked so hard for.
‘When I have kids I really hope they’re all boys. Because if there are any girls in my family that would like to be a part of college sports teams, well, it’s a good thing. [Their opponents]Thomas said Thomas was a teammate and that biological men would all claim to be women.
“Right now, we only have one. But what if there were three? It would have three fewer girls on the team.