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University of Pennsylvania swimmer Leah Thomas is set to compete in the 2022 NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships, but one of her teammates told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview that she worries the impact of her participation has “completely destroyed the integrity of the sport” .
The student, who spoke to Fox News on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, praised her team’s accomplishments at the Ivy League Championship in Cambridge, Massachusetts last month, but expressed disappointment with the decisions that allowed Thomas, a 22-year-old transgender woman who played on the men’s team for three seasons to compete against the women’s team with record numbers.
“In my opinion, this is not necessarily an achievement,” she said. “Women’s records are separate from men’s records. It’s its own separate category because no woman is going to be as fast as a man, and here it’s just completely – we’re just dropping the definition of a record to fit into someone else’s agenda. what it should mean to them when it doesn’t really make scientific sense.”
2022 NCAA WOMEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING CHAMPIONSHIP: LIA THOMAS FAVORITE TO WINN 200, 500 FREESTYLE
Leah Thomas of the Pennsylvania Quakers after winning the 500m freestyle triathlon against the Yale Bulldogs and Dartmouth Big Green at Sheerr Pool on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania on January 8, 2022 in Philadelphia, PA. . (Hunter Martin/Getty Images)
Thomas is one of 322 athletes who qualified for the men’s and women’s championships this week after setting several Ivy League championship records last month with victories in the 100m, 200m and 500m freestyle. She is going to participate in the same competitions, and in two of them she takes first place in the country.
“It’s still just disappointing that the NCAA doesn’t have the guts to do the right thing,” the swimmer said. “I think that if Liya broke the record of being an Olympic champion, it would do a lot of damage to the sport and women, and I think it would get more people on the stage. [against the guidelines]people who used to be afraid to speak.”
In January, the NCAA updated its transgender participation policy to be guided by guidance from each sport’s governing body. The NCAA has announced that its policy will go into effect in March, starting with the Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships.
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US Swimming updated its policy shortly after requiring transgender athletes who compete at the elite level to have low testosterone levels — half of what Thomas was allowed to compete with — for a minimum of 36 months before he becomes eligible. to participate, but the NCAA said a few weeks later that the Committee on Competitive Assurance and Medical Aspects of Sports (CMAS) Administrative Subcommittee had decided it would not change its testosterone guidance, stating that “making further changes now could have unfair and potentially detrimental effects on schools and student-athletes. intend to compete in the NCAA Women’s Swimming Championship in 2022.”
University of Pennsylvania swimmer Leah Thomas reacts after her team won the 400-yard freestyle relay during the 2022 Ivy League Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships at Blodgett Basin on February 19, 2022 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Katherine Riley/Getty Images)
“I think there’s a way you can still be yourself, who you are, and swim for who you are without competing with women,” the student told Fox News. “If you had any sympathy for your teammates or women at all, you would admit that you have an unfair advantage and you wouldn’t do that with women.”
The student said the team supported Thomas’s self-expression despite what many believe, but she explained that she couldn’t support the decision to compete with other women at an advantage.
“I don’t see how we could be more supportive as a team,” she said. “But I will not back down, and my teammates and women across the country should not be told not to speak their mind on an issue that affects them so much. They are discriminated against. Women’s rights are being violated.”
She continued, “This entire season has been about her. This whole season has been about Leah and we have all sacrificed everything, all of our livelihoods that we have sacrificed. How much more must we be willing to sacrifice for Leah. I don’t want to sacrifice anything else. We have already sacrificed the morale of the team and how people look at the success of our team, and the media is involved in this aspect.”
Leah Thomas of Pennsylvania cheers for teammates competing in the 1650-yard freestyle final at the Ivy League Swimming and Diving Championships at Harvard, Saturday, February 19, 2022, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (AP Photo/Mary Schwalm)
The student said that while she is hopeful for the year ahead, she worries that Thomas’ participation has left a legacy that is detrimental to the sport.
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“It will still haunt us in the fact that pool and team records have been broken in an unfair and illegal manner. We have to look at the record board, see Leah’s name and take it somewhere.”
She added, “It completely destroys the integrity of the school.”