Lia Thomas is out of swimming forever, and now, she has no title. The biological male swimmer who won the NCAA Championships in eleven events, setting 16 world records and shattering pool records across the country, will now go down in history as a 113th-ranked, average male.
The decision came after FINA decided that transitioning after age 12 means you don’t get to compete with women. The NCAA said in a statement that they couldn’t in good conscience, continue to allow Thomas to pretend she won when clearly, scientists say she didn’t.
Thomas was told she could compete if she transitioned, before she transitioned, if she followed a very specific set of rules. She complied with those rules and competed. Then, the internet awarded her the national championship in everything that has to do with water, handed her a bunch of records she never broke, and declared her the 6 million dollar biological male. It was actually pretty ridiculous.
In reality, Thomas did what she did because she is who she is, and surely, she has no regrets. If science decides that puberty gives a trans woman a clear advantage, then whatever. Science is science. Along with the medal she absolutely gets to keep, Thomas will also appear in history books as a controversial trailblazer long after the cult is gone.
God bless America.
