The US swimmer Lia Thomas, who rose to global prominence after becoming the first transgender athlete to win a NCAA college title in March 2022, has lost a legal case against World Aquatics at the court of arbitration for sport – and with it any hopes of making next month’s Paris Olympics.
The 25-year-old also remains barred from swimming in the female category after failing to overturn rules introduced by swimming’s governing body in the summer of 2022, which prohibit anyone who has undergone “any part of male puberty” from the female category.
Thomas had argued that those rules should be declared “invalid and unlawful” as they were contrary to the Olympic charter and the World Aquatics constitution.
However, in a 24-page decision, the court concluded that Thomas was “simply not entitled to engage with eligibility to compete in WA competitions” as someone who was no longer a member of US swimming.
The news was welcomed by World Aquatics, who hailed it as “a major step forward in our efforts to protect women’s sport”.
Either genetics predominantly favor biological males, in which case a world-class swimmer like Lea Thomas should win virtually every meet, or it’s more complicated than that.
There will always be outliers on both sides yes, but take the top 10% of male and female athletes and put them against each other, and the men would win 80% of the time. Because they are genetically predominately better at the stuff required for athletics. Wider hips aren’t really great for running for example…
Reality of often disappointing.
Lea Thomas is in the top 10% and does not win 80% of the time.
Does Crosby win 80% of the time? Mcdavid? Brady…?
Give your head a shake dude.
Dont try to argue in good faith with someone who doesn’t
It’s not my fault that your claim does not match reality, at least when it comes to swimming.
It’s not a claim… it’s the result of genetic study….
Wide hips aren’t great for running, not every woman has wide hips, but most do. So yeah some are going to be able to do it.
Now, almost every man doesn’t have wide hips, so they have inherent advantage right there.
She wasn’t the TOP male swimmer, I’m sure if we look at her fastest time as a male it would be slower than the top female. Her going over won’t suddenly make her faster, it just means the competition is easier….
Except her pre-transition fastest 1000 free was faster than the record for female 1000 free.
To add on to that. Her pre-transition time was ~24 seconds slower than the male record and post transition her 1000 free was about 32 seconds slower than the female record. So if anything she was preforming better in her categories before she transitioned.
First of all, she was never male any more than a gay person isn’t heterosexual before telling people they’re gay. She competed on a man’s team before coming out of the closet and was rated sixth fastest “man” in the nation at the time. Now she’s being beaten by CIS women. Sounds like whatever advantage she had when she was on that team doesn’t exist anymore, which, again, suggests it’s more complicated than just genetics.
Why people are so against the idea of “it’s more complicated than that” and think anything biological has such a simple answer is just kind of sad because it shows such ignorance of basic science.
Edit: Thanks for proving it, downvoters. Let me guess- you also think a single gene is responsible for eye color.
Pardon my ignorance, what would you call someone preop and refering to them in the past tense? Especially when competing?
If someone was married, it wouldn’t be wrong to refer to them at that time as straight or call it during their “straight phase” and we are simplifying it. Especially if you don’t know their full story.
Sounds like you’re just looking for a fight in the comments, imma bounce.
If I wanted to answer your question, I would tell you that “presenting as” is the preferred term, but since I’m just looking for a fight, I won’t tell you that.
Her ranks when swimming against men were 554th in the 200 freestyle, 65th in the 500 freestyle, and 32nd in the 1650 freestyle. Those ranks are now, when competing in the women’s team, fifth in the 200 freestyle, first in the 500 freestyle, and eighth in the 1650 freestyle.
Her time for the 500 freestyle, where she is ranked #1 against women, is over 15 seconds slower than her personal bests before medically transitioning, and even THEN she was only 65th in the event against men. The same event where she was 65th is now 15 seconds slower and ranked #1. That’s the gulf between the two events.
I just pasted this-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lia_Thomas
But, you are correct. She ranked those numbers eventually. Do you know when she ranked that low? After she started taking hormones.
Which proves my point that it’s more complicated than just genetics.
That’s not a very thoughtful argument. This is about comparing the top percentages of athletes. Lea Thomas is not 100% the best woman swimmer in the world, since she does lose sometimes to the best women. But when she competed against men she lost every single time. It’s about the top 0.1% of women swimmers not being able to compete with the top 10% of male swimmers. Lea Thomas wasn’t even close to the top 10% of men but instantly became the top 1% for women. No, all men aren’t instantly the best female athletes. But in a lot of sports the absolute best women’s athletes can’t compete with even average teenage boys.
That’s not true.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lia_Thomas