This week University of Pennsylvania swimmer Will "Lia" Thomas easily won the women's 500-yard freestyle and was declared a National Champion. Until 2020, William Thomas was ranked 462nd in the country as a male swimmer on Penn's men's swim team.
With obviously broader shoulders, longer legs, bigger feet and hands, more muscle mass and other male body parts intact, Thomas stood well above the competition on the podium, beating out the biological women for first place. University of Virginia Swimmer Emma Weyant, a silver medal Olympian, placed second.
Over at ESPN, which has been upholding Thomas' dominating season as "progress," the announcers applauded the women in the pool for trying their best to come in second place.
"That's where she [Thomas] really took control of the race. Emma Weyant did as much as she could to hang in there and did a spectacular job in getting second," an ESPN announcer said, apparently unable to hear the absurdity of what he was describing.
On the side of the pool, at the conclusion of the race, Thomas was interviewed and asked about feelings.
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"It means the world to be here," Thomas said.
There were no interviews from ESPN about the feelings of those who were cheated after years of hard work and training.
Outside of the building, a female swimmer from Virginia Tech had the courage to speak out and detailed the heartache of a fellow swimmer who missed finals after coming in 17th. The cut-off was 16th, and Thomas took the first place slot.
"It's a common conception that we are all very disappointed and frustrated with someone who is – has capabilities more than us women have to be able to compete at this level and take opportunities away from other women. I have a teammate who did not make finals today because she was just bumped out of finals and it's heartbreaking to see someone who went through puberty as a male and has the body of a male be able to absolutely blow away the competition," she told The Post Millennial. "You go into it with a mindset that you don't have a chance… it's hard to compete against someone with the aerobic capacity the muscle development the body of a man. It's hard."
The situation is an abomination, a rejection of truth and a complete undermining of women in sports by a man who just recently competed on the men's team.
Thomas doesn't deserve coddling or pity and definitely not praise. Instead, Thomas deserves to be shamed for stealing the dreams and hard work of women he's knowingly crushing in the pool. Thomas is preying on women, not empowering them by claiming to be one of them.
Worse are those who have enabled this behavior. Cowardly NCAA officials have been too afraid to take on the issue and have sacrificed the decades-long fight for female equal opportunity in sport. Thomas' coach, Mike Schnur, has reportedly been fine with the spectacle because he's "winning" and can now claim to have a national champion on his resume. But is it really winning if securing a championship involved cheating?
"Years down the road, Lia Thomas' name will be listed as the titlist of the 500 freestyle at the 2022 NCAA Championships. There should be an asterisk next to her name. Meanwhile, the NCAA will be remembered for turning its back on biological women and producing a competitive environment that was anything but legitimate," Swimming World Editor-in-Chief John Lohn writes. "What unfolded in Atlanta on St. Patrick's Day was the latest chapter in the book of slights against women's sports. We've seen it before: Inferior pay. Inadequate supports. Subpar facilities and conditions. Now, an athlete racing with significant physical benefits."
It's long past time for Title IX to be upheld and protected. The women who have been unjustly cheated this time will never get their titles back. The races are finished and their careers are over. Nothing will make up for missing finals by one slot. A slot taken, stolen by a man.
Again, until 2020, Thomas was competing as a man on the men's team. Will Thomas still has a profile on the Penn men's swimming and diving website. Cheating to win is theft. Thomas is a thief.
