There may be a transgender athlete at the 2024 Paris Olympics, but it won’t be Lia Thomas.
The former University of Pennsylvania swimmer’s dream of competing for a women’s Olympic medal was effectively dashed after an international panel dismissed Thomas’s case against the World Aquatics transgender-eligibility standards.
The Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport said Thomas lacks standing to challenge the 2022 policy update, which bars male-to-female transgender swimmers from competing in elite women’s events if they have undergone male puberty.
The group also created an “open” category for “swimmers of all sex and genders identities,” but no swimmers registered for the category at its October debut at the World Aquatics Swimming World Cup in Berlin.
Thomas, 25, who transitioned from male to female in college, called the court’s decision “deeply disappointing.”
“Blanket bans preventing trans women from competing are discriminatory and deprive us of valuable athletic opportunities that are central to our identities,” Thomas said in a statement to ESPN. “The CAS decision should be seen as a call to action to all trans women athletes to continue to fight for our dignity and human rights.”
World Aquatics cheered the court’s decision, calling it “a major step forward in our efforts to protect women’s sport.”
“We remain committed to working collaboratively with all stakeholders to uphold the principles of inclusivity in aquatic sports and remain confident that our gender inclusion policy represents a fair approach,” said the authority based in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Thomas expressed interest in competing in women’s Olympic swimming after winning the 500-yard freestyle at the 2022 NCAA women’s swimming championships, becoming the first male-born athlete to win an NCAA Division I women’s title.
The Ivy League athlete’s success fueled a global debate over fairness versus inclusion in women’s sports that led some global athletic governing bodies to tighten their transgender eligibility criteria, including World Aquatics and World Athletics, the track-and-field authority.
Because Thomas has not competed internationally and is not registered with World Aquatics, the court concluded that the swimmer “lacks standing to challenge the policy and the operational requirements in the framework of the present proceeding.”
The U.S. Olympic Swim Team Trials are scheduled for June 15-23 in Indianapolis, but Thomas’s name is not on the “psych sheets” released Tuesday that list the competitors in each event.
Others applauding the court ruling included Riley Gaines, who tied for fifth with Thomas in the 200-yard freestyle at the 2022 championships.
“Great news! Lia Thomas won’t be able to compete in women’s category at the Olympics or any other elite competition,” she said on X. “He has just lost his legal battle in Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling. This is a victory for women and girls everywhere
British developmental biologist Emma Hilton, a critic of male-born athletes in female sports, called the court’s ruling “procedural” but nonetheless “great news for women.”
“Thomas is a male swimmer wishing to compete in the female category,” she said on X. “Thomas shot through the ranks—who would have predicted?—after switching to the female category in NCAA. World Aquatics’ policy-making process was exemplary: transparent, informed, constructive.”
British Olympic swimming medalist Sharron Davies said: “Good, no elite female athlete will have to lose out to this mediocre 6’4ft male swimmer.”
Great news! Lia Thomas won’t be able to compete in women’s category at the Olympics or any other elite competition.
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) June 12, 2024
He has just lost his legal battle in Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling.
This is a victory for women and girls everywherehttps://t.co/fEZc47K0FA
Thomas underwent hormone-suppression for at least a year before joining the Penn women’s team, as required under the NCAA rules at the time, becoming a top national competitor in women’s Division I swimming after three years as a middle-of-the-pack swimmer on the men’s team.
“During the last season Thomas competed as a member of the Penn men’s team, which was 2018-19, she ranked 554th in the 200 freestyle, 65th in the 500 freestyle and 32nd in the 1650 freestyle,” said a 2022 analysis in Swimming World. “As her career at Penn wrapped, she moved to fifth, first and eighth in those respective events on the women’s deck.”
This article was based in part on wire service reports.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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