Lia Thomas is an American swimmer notable for being the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I national championship, securing victory in the women's 500-yard freestyle in 2022. Subsequently, she was barred from women's events by World Aquatics. Thomas's athletic career has become central to the ongoing public discussion and debate surrounding the inclusion of transgender women in women's sports.
In May 1999, Lia Catherine Thomas was born. She is an American swimmer and the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I national championship.
In 2017, Lia Thomas began swimming on the men's team at the University of Pennsylvania and recorded the sixth-fastest national men's time in the 1,000-yard freestyle.
In 2017, Lia Thomas started attending the University of Pennsylvania.
During the 2018–2019 season, while competing on the men's team, Lia Thomas was ranked 554th in the 200 freestyle.
In 2018, Lia Thomas continued on the men's swim team at the University of Pennsylvania.
In the summer of 2018, after her freshman year at college, Lia Thomas came out as transgender to her family.
In May 2019, Lia Thomas began transitioning and started hormone replacement therapy.
During the 2018–2019 season, while competing on the men's team, Lia Thomas was ranked 65th in the 500 freestyle and 32nd in the 1650 freestyle.
In 2019, Lia Thomas's event progression peaked for distance swimming.
In 2019, as a sophomore, Lia Thomas finished second in the men's 500, 1,000, and 1,650-yard freestyle at the Ivy League championships while competing on the men's swim team at the University of Pennsylvania.
During the 2019–2020 academic year, Lia Thomas was required to swim for the men's team as a junior while undergoing hormone therapy.
In December 2021, USA Swimming official Cynthia Millen resigned after 30 years in protest against Lia Thomas's eligibility to compete and then she appeared to express her views on the Fox News show The Ingraham Angle.
By 2021, Lia Thomas had met the NCAA hormone therapy requirements to swim on the women's team.
By the conclusion of Lia Thomas's swimming career at UPenn in 2022, her rank had moved from 65th on the men's team to 1st on the women's team in the 500-yard freestyle, and 554th on the men's team to fifth on the women's team in the 200-yard freestyle during the 2021-2022 season.
During the 2021–2022 season, Lia Thomas experienced a drop in times for distance swimming, but sprint swimming reflected a dip at the start of 2021–2022 season before returning to near-lifetime bests in the 100 free and a lifetime personal best in the 50 free in 2021.
During the 2021–2022 season, competing in the women's team, Lia Thomas was ranked fifth in the 200 freestyle.
On January 10, 2022, The Washington Post wrote, "Thomas has shattered school records and has posted the fastest times of any female college swimmer in two events this season. She'll probably be a favorite at the NCAA championships in March, even as people inside and outside the sport debate her place on the pool deck."
In January 2022, at a meet against Yale, Lia Thomas finished in 6th place in the 100m freestyle race, losing to four cisgender women and Iszac Henig, a transgender man.
In January 2022, the University of Pennsylvania, multiple organizations affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and the Ivy League issued statements supporting Lia Thomas.
In February 2022, CNN's Levinson described Lia Thomas as "the face of the debate on transgender women in sports".
In February 2022, Vicky Hartzler, a Republican Senate candidate in Missouri, featured Lia Thomas in a campaign advertisement asserting that "Women's sports are for women, not men pretending to be women".
In February 2022, in response to a proposed NCAA transgender athlete policy, sixteen anonymous members of the University of Pennsylvania women's swimming team sent a letter asking officials not to take legal action against the proposal, while another group made a statement supporting her. A letter in response, organized by Schuyler Bailar and signed by more than 300 current and former collegiate swimmers, stated their support for Lia Thomas, and all transgender college athletes.
In March 2022, Lia Thomas became the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I national championship in any sport after winning the women's 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:33.24; Olympic silver medalist Emma Weyant was second.
In March 2022, Sports Illustrated denoted Lia Thomas as "the most controversial athlete in America".
The March 2022 NCAA championship was Lia Thomas's last college swimming event.
In a May 2022 interview with Good Morning America, Lia Thomas defended herself from criticism and stated her intention to keep swimming and to compete at the Olympic trials.
As of June 2022, multiple states, including Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia, have laws prohibiting public schools from allowing the participation of transgender girls in school sports for girls.
In June 2022, the International Swimming Federation (FINA) voted to bar transgender athletes from competing in professional women's swimming, preventing Lia Thomas from competing in the women's competition at the 2024 United States Olympic trials as she had planned.
During the 2021–2022 season, Lia Thomas experienced a drop in times for distance swimming, but sprint swimming reflected a dip at the start of 2021–2022 season before returning to near-lifetime bests in the 100 free and a lifetime personal best in the 50 free in 2021.
During the 2021–2022 season, competing in the women's team, Lia Thomas was ranked first in the 500 freestyle and eighth in the 1,650 freestyle.
In 2021–2022, Lia Thomas swam on the women's team after taking a year off school to maintain her eligibility to compete while competitive swimming was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2022, Lia Thomas graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, with plans to attend law school.
In 2022, Lia Thomas won the women's 500-yard freestyle event, becoming the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I national championship, before being barred from competing in women's events by World Aquatics.
In 2022, World Aquatics introduced a gender inclusion policy, stipulating that trans women can compete in the women's category if any male puberty was halted by age 12 or Tanner Stage 2.
In 2022, after the vetoes by Holcomb and Cox, as well as the win by Lia Thomas at the NCAA championship, "Transgender rights are dominating outrage on the right". The National Women's Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) defended Thomas.
In January 2024, Lia Thomas initiated a legal challenge against the World Aquatics gender inclusion policy, claiming it was discriminatory.
In June 2024, the Court of Arbitration for Sport determined that Lia Thomas lacked the standing to challenge the World Aquatics gender inclusion policy, thus confirming her ineligibility to compete.
In June 2022, the International Swimming Federation (FINA) voted to bar transgender athletes from competing in professional women's swimming, preventing Lia Thomas from competing in the women's competition at the 2024 United States Olympic trials as she had planned.
In March 2022, it was reported that Lia Thomas applied for law school and planned to swim at the 2024 Summer Olympics trials.
In March 2025, the Trump administration stripped away $175 million dollars of federal funding from UPenn over their allowing Lia Thomas to swim as a woman.
In July 2025, it was reported that UPenn made an agreement with the federal government to bar transgender athletes from competing on female sports teams and to "erase all records and awards belonging to Thomas."
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