Lia Thomas Swims to Victory Under NCAA’s Controversial Standards for Trans Competitors

Collegiate women’s swimming and diving kicked off its NCAA Division I championships on March 16, and the season has been rife with controversy over Lia Thomas, the first transgender NCAA Division I women’s swimming champion. 

Thomas, a student-athlete at the University of Pennsylvania, competed on Penn’s men’s swimming and diving team for three years. While competing among men, Thomas posted decent times, but was far from qualifying for the men’s NCAA Division I championships. 

After passing all of the NCAA’s rules for trans competitors, Thomas shattered records this season for the Ivy League school’s women’s team. In fact, Thomas’ times were only slightly behind one of the greatest female swimmers to ever dive into the pool: Katie Ledecky. 

Olympian Katie Ledecky swam the fastest time ever recorded in the women’s 500-yard freestyle at 4:24.06, which stands as the current NCAA, American, and US Open record. Tonight, Thomas won the 500-yard freestyle event with a time of 4:33.24, a full second and half ahead of the second place finisher. Her performance lands her as the 16th fastest female swimmer of all time in this event.

An athlete’s success largely hinges on whether or not she has talent—both raw and earned. Many athletes take “trust the process” as a mantra, but there’s a sense in collegiate swimming that the process has broken down. 

A few weeks before the championships, USA Swimming announced new standards for transitioning swimmers; transgender athletes would have to show a concentration of testosterone below 5 nmol/L for a continuous period of 36 months and provide “evidence that the prior physical development of the athlete as a male…does not give the athlete a competitive advantage over the athlete’s cisgender female competitors.” The NCAA has acknowledged “a competitive difference in the male and female categories and the disadvantages this presents in elite head-to-head competition,” but determined it would be “unfair” and “potentially detrimental on schools and student-athletes intending to compete in 2022 NCAA women’s swimming championships” to follow the new standards (which Thomas would have failed to meet).

Broader legal and social acceptance for trans people has been a force for good, allowing them to live freely and authentically. And Thomas has been brave in the face of significant vitriol for competing in a sport where the ruli