16 swimmers from the University of Pennsylvania signed their names in support of a letter that would prevent their transgender teammate Lia Thomas from competing.
“We fully support Lia Thomas in her decision to affirm her gender identity and to transition from a man to a woman. Lia has every right to live her life authentically,” the letter reads. “However, we also recognize that when it comes to sports competition, that the biology of sex is a separate issue from someone’s gender identity. Biologically, Lia holds an unfair advantage over competition in the women’s category, as evidenced by her rankings that have bounced from #462 as a male to #1 as a female.”
Meanwhile, Thomas may be out of the NCAA championships after a rule change.
Per the new NCAA rule change, transgender athletes must have recorded low testosterone levels for 36 months. Thomas only began “transitioning” in May of 2019.”
NCAA Mark Everett said in a staetment “like the Olympics, the updated NCAA policy calls for transgender participation for each sport to be determined by the policy for the national governing body of that sport, subject to ongoing review and recommendation by the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports to the Board of Governors. If there is no NGB policy for a sport, that sport’s international federation policy would be followed. If there is no international federation policy, previously established IOC policy criteria would be followed.”
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