Trans Swimming Champion Lia Thomas Is Nominated For Woman Of The Year

The University of Pennsylvania has selected two student-athletes as nominees for the NCAA’s 2022 Woman of the Year Award: A tennis player from Russia and the first out transgender Division I women’s national swimming champion, Lia Thomas.

Despite reports of the ongoing atrocities Russia is commiting in Ukraine, it’s not Iuliia Bryzgalova whose nomination is making headlines.

Thomas is but one of 577 graduating women student-athletes chosen by their colleges and universities, according to the NCAA. What’s setting her apart is the fact that she is an out trans woman who in March 2019 swam for the UPenn men’s team, then began a medical transition.

"The biggest misconception, I think, is the reason I transitioned," Thomas told ESPN’s Katie Barnes in May. ‘People will say, 'Oh, she just transitioned so she would have an advantage, so she could win.' I transitioned to be happy, to be true to myself."

Medical transition was also necessary for her to compete with other women, in accordance with NCAA regulations, beginning in the fall semester of 2021. Thomas completed 30 months of testosterone-reducing hormone therapy before she won the 500-yard freestyle at the championships in Atlanta this past March. She beat her closest competitor by more than a second, but never finished better than fifth in her two remaining contests.

Opponents booed her, organized protests and sent the NCAA complaint letters, while supporters countered with cheers and letters of support.

All that is once again stirring controversy, and lighting up social media with negative reactions, transphobic comments, misgendering and outright bigotry.

That’s not all Martina Navratilova, a noted opponent of transgender inclusion in sports, has to say about Lia Thomas.

A report in the right-leaning Washington Examiner quoted the out lesbian tennis icon in its coverage of the announcement.

“There must be an ‘asterisk’ by the transgender swimmer's name when it comes to Thomas's success,” wrote Examiner social media producer Luke Gentile, explaining Navratilova’s position. "It's not about excluding transgender women from winning ever," Navratilova said. "But it is about not allowing them to win when they were not anywhere near winning as men."

Navratilova is mistaken when it comes to Thomas: As Karleigh Webb reported in Outsports, as a sophomore at Penn, Thomas finished second in the Ivy League men’s championship final in the 1650 free. It was her third second-place effort at that meet. And as that site’s co-founder, Cyd Zeigler, wrote, Thomas was considerably slower in each of her events as the woman she is than she was pre-transition.

“Trans women competing in women's sports does not threaten women's sports as a whole," Thomas told ESPN in her first extensive interview since being crowned national champion. "Trans women are a very small minority of all athletes. The NCAA rules regarding trans women competing in women's sports have been around for 10-plus years. And we haven't seen any massive wave of trans women dominating."

Despite that, and without conclusive scientific evidence, the world governing body for swimmers last month voted to ban transgender women athletes from competing with elite cisgender women, as ESPN reported. FINA established a new "open" category for trans women, which is still in the works. The new policy requires transgender competitors to have completed their transition by age 12 to be able to compete in competitions with cisgender women and girls. The working group is tasked with determining how to set up the new open category within six months, FINA said.

“Established in 1991, the award recognizes female student-athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves in their community, in athletics and in academics throughout their college careers,” said the NCAA in announcing the nominees. “As 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of Title IX, the NCAA Woman of the Year program is an important opportunity to honor and reflect on the impact of women on intercollegiate sports.”

Title IX removed barriers for women and girls across education. The law made sex-based discrimination illegal in programs and institutions that received federal funding.

As Edward Conroy reported for Forbes in June, the Biden administration marked the Title IX anniversary last month by proposing new rules providing various protections, including legal protection from sex discrimination, requiring that schools respond promptly and effectively to any complaints of sex discrimination, and ensuring that LGBTQ+ students are shielded from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The Justice Department and ACLU are tackling individual states challenging the rights of trans students in court.

What’s next in terms of the awards is that an NCAA selection panel will review the 577 nominees and pick 30 Women of the Year honorees, from which they will then choose nine finalists—-three from each NCAA division, according to the organization's website. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics will then review those finalists before selecting the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year.

The winner will be named in January 2023 at the NCAA Convention in San Antonio, Texas.

Texas is also the state where Republicans have targeted families providing gender-affirming healthcare to their transgender children, labeling it “child abuse.” As of last month, a federal judge called for a halt to such investigations, which the state has continued pending appeal.

Unlike in 2o16, when the NCAA and other sports organizations pulled events from North Carolina in response to a law that targeted transgender Americans by restricting which public bathrooms they could use, the NCAA has not taken any action against Texas or any of the 17 other states that have banned trans student-athletes from competing according to their authentic gender identity.

What the NCAA did do, in January, is abandon its 11-year-old trans participation policy and hand over the power to limit, restrict, ban or allow trans competitors to individual sporting bodies. That’s what opened the door for FINA and USA Swimming to essentially ban trans female swimmers from competing with other women. This month, British Triathlon matched that ban, and more sports organizations are expected to follow.

Essentially, Lia Thomas may wind up both the first and last out transgender champion, regardless of whether she is ultimately named the woman of the year.