Lia Thomas took command in the final 100 yards of the 500-yard freestyle to become the first transgender woman to win an NCAA swimming championship on Thursday, know her age, height
Thomas, a senior at the University of Pennsylvania who was seeded first in the NCAA women’s swimming and diving championships, set a season-best time of 4 minutes, 33.24 seconds.
Inclusion Of Trans Women In Sports
Even within the sport, the inclusion of the transgender swimmer sparked debate. There were protesters outside the Georgia Tech facility, and some carried banners in the stands that read “Save Women’s Sports.”
Swimmer Lia Thomas Penn Biography, Age, Height, Parents, Story, Interview, Swimming Video
Lia Catherine Thomas (born 1998/1999) and aged 22 years currently is an American swimmer and University of Pennsylvania student. In 2021 and 2022, her athletic accomplishments as a trans woman sparked media debate, with Sports Illustrated dubbing Thomas “America’s most controversial athlete” and CNN dubbing her “the face of the debate on transgender women in sports.”
Thomas has an older brother and grew up in Austin, Texas. Thomas started swimming at the age of five. She has a height of 5 feet 8 inches and weighs 60kg. Her parents have come out asking her not to be allowed to swim in women competitions owing to the clear biological advantage she has over the others. He spent 21 years as a man before taking part in women swimming in 2022.
“They asked how he felt about winning, when really, how did the rest of the women feel about having the stress of dealing with this, knowing they have to swim against him?” the Auburn swimmer’s father said.
“I think everybody’s gotta be civil about it. I call him Will Thomas. He’s a human, we should respect that and what he wants to do with his life, but this isn’t the place to do it,” he continued.
“It means the world to be here.”
Lia Thomas spoke about swimming in the NCAA women's championships. pic.twitter.com/aP0afVA0KE
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 18, 2022
😭😭😭 are you serious ? pic.twitter.com/GJ40jvj1Fu
— RJ Barrett Fan Acct (@The_BoobieMiles) March 18, 2022
Virginia Tech swimmer competing in this year’s NCAA championship details how her teammate was brought to tears after her place in the finals was taken by Lia Thomas: pic.twitter.com/mow56mVp1W
— Sav (@RapidFire_Pod) March 17, 2022
Lia Thomas spent 21 years of his life as a man.
He started competing against women in swimming this year and became a national champion.
Our daughter’s sports are not a plan B for failed male athletes.
pic.twitter.com/Lbtos3Ut6g— American Principles 🇺🇸 (@approject) March 18, 2022
Transgender Status And Controversies
In 2021, primarily conservative media began extensively covering Thomas/ In January 2022, notable sports figures and the mainstream media began expressing their thoughts and reporting on her. According to the Washington Post, Thomas was “breaking records.”
Cynthia Millen, a 30-year USA Swimming official, resigned in December 2021, expressing her hope that others in the sport will agree that Thomas has an unfair competitive advantage over cisgender competitors. Sixteen unnamed members of the University of Pennsylvania women’s swimming team sent a letter to university and Ivy League officials requesting that they not take legal action against the NCAA’s new transgender athlete policy, which could prevent Thomas from competing in the NCAA championships, despite the fact that Thomas was ranked 462 as a male swimmer.
Athletes have expressed their dissatisfaction with her record-breaking performance on social media, with Coach Linda Blade taking to Twitter to state that what is going on is wrong and that they should return to sex-based sports.
Meanwhile, Thomas revealed that her gender identity hasn’t affected her swimming ability and that she plans to continue swimming in the near future.