Lia Thomas has brought up a large debate regarding her victories in the NCAA. She began on the mens team at the University of Pennsylvania however, she did not feel like this team was a good fit for her. She explained that knowing she was a women yet competing as a man caused a lot of emotional distress. In May of 2019, she did hormonal replacement therapy and joined the women’s team not long after.
The debate is made up of the arguments that male athletes have certain physical advantages over female. In addition to that, people who have gone through testosterone driven puberty have greater muscle mass and higher mechanical strength. Overall, men are created to be stronger and taller given them advantaged in sports.
Lia Thomas won the 500 yard freestyle in Atlanta last week which made her the first transgender swimmer to win a Division 1 championship. She beat the second place winner by over a second. Some questioned her victories due to being ranked number 462 in the male category and number 1 in female.
There are critics on both sides of this debate. However, many are not in support of allowing this to happen. Some say by allowing this, it will destroy opportunities for women in the NCAA. They believe it robs women of certain achievements and awards they could be receiving simply based on genetics. However, the NCAA has a sport by sport approach which allow each sport to have different policies when it comes to transgender athletes.
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