‘I am a woman!’ UPenn trans swimmer Leah Thomas defends the race against biological women and says she is not interested in winning, although she regularly wipes the floor with opponents whose parents say she eliminates them from the sport.
- Leah Thomas, 22, spoke to Sports Illustrated about an article published Thursday
- Thomas was born a man, but moved on to become a woman in 2020
- She previously competed in the men’s swimming team at UPenn
- Now her teammates’ parents say she has eliminated them from the sport
- Thomas broke records for fast women’s swimming in the country
- Sports Illustrated said it “insists” that it is not interested in winning or competing and simply “loves” swimming
- One parent told the magazine, “We can’t stay away while she rewrites records and eliminates biological women from sports.”
Transsexual swimmer Leah Thomas defended the women’s race
transgender swimmer Leah Thomas defended the women’s race and said she was not interested in winning, although she regularly wiped the floor with opponents who were born girls.
Leah went from men’s to women’s and is now competing for the UPenn women’s team.
Her participation in the team has been widely criticized by people who say she has an unfair physical advantage.
In an interview with Sports Illustrated which was published on Thursday, she defended her place on the team.
However, the parents of her teammates told the magazine that she “eliminates women from sports”.
“I am a woman, like everyone else on the team. I’ve always looked at myself as a swimmer. This is what I have been doing for so long; this is what i love.
“I go into the water every day and do my best,” she said.
Leah Thomas competes in a swimming match on January 8, 2022
The author of the magazine said that Leah “insists” that she is not interested in winning or setting records.
“The very simple answer is that I am not a man. I’m a woman, so I belong to the women’s team.
Thomas used to compete in the men’s team and started taking hormone therapy in 2019-2020. The pandemic gave her a break in sports and she continued with transitional therapy. It was shown in 2017
“Trans people deserve the same respect that every other athlete receives,” she said later in the interview.
“I do not look at negativity and hatred. I’m here to swim.
Few have spoken out against her for fear of being excluded from the team, but one parent told Sports Illustrated: “We support Leah as a trans woman and hope she leads a happy and productive life because that’s what she deserves.
“What we can’t do is wait until she rewrites records and eliminates biological women from the sport.
“If we don’t talk here, it’s going to happen in college after college.
“And then women’s sports as we know them will no longer exist in this country.”
Leah competed as a man until 2020, when the pandemic stopped sports in college and school.
She then used the break to move forward with hormone therapy and returned to the women’s team in 2021.
In a swimming meeting in December, she surfaced the fastest recorded time in the country.
In his interview, Thomas talked about using the pandemic to switch to women.
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