Sports
Transgender swimmer breaks silence
Lia Thomas hopes to ‘swim at Olympic trials’
After months of nasty headlines and boos hurled her way at the mere mention of her name, Lia Thomas can finally live her life away from the spotlight, and enjoy her first summer as just another college graduate.
So, what does the out transgender champion do? She’s granted her first media interviews since her historic NCAA victory, telling reporters she’s headed to law school and she also plans to take the laps necessary to win Olympic gold.
“I intend to keep swimming,” Thomas told ABC News correspondent Juju Chang Tuesday on “Good Morning America.” “It’s been a goal of mine to swim at Olympic trials for a very long time, and I would love to see that through.”
In addition to Chang, the native of Austin, Texas, also agreed to answer questions from ESPN sportswriter Katie Barnes, who is the first out LGBTQ journalist to be granted this opportunity.
The Los Angeles Blade repeatedly requested an interview with Thomas, before, during and after she competed at the National Championships in Atlanta. Barnes was there, too, and as they reported, Thomas flat-out refused to appear at the traditional winner’s news conference. She gave only two interviews during her historic run: The first went to a SwimSwam podcaster in December, and the only other one was live on the pool deck with ESPN, immediately after Thomas won the 500-freestyle in March.
Barnes, who is non-binary, asked the UPenn grad for her perspective on the ongoing national debate over trans girls and women competing with cisgender girls and women in school sports.
“The biggest misconception, I think, is the reason I transitioned,” Thomas said. “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.”
Thomas, who swam on the Penn men’s swimming team for three seasons, then took a gap year during the COVID-19 pandemic, which canceled college swimming, said she began her medical transition in May 2019 following her sophomore year. By the time she joined the women’s swim team as a fifth year senior in 2021, she had undergone 30months of hormone replacement therapy.
Republican legislators who have copy-pasted bills banning trans student athletes across the country have invoked Thomas’ name, claiming laws were needed to protect the sanctity of women’s sports, even in states where no out trans students competed.
Thomas told ESPN the threat is entirely imaginary.
“Trans women competing in women’s sports does not threaten women’s sports as a whole,” Thomas told Barnes. “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.”
The rules are changing, however. USA Swimming updated its trans participation policy in February to require evaluation of eligibility for trans women by a three-person panel, and 36 months of testosterone suppression; More months than Thomas had undergone. However, the NCAA opted to not impose that policy for its 2022 swimming and diving championships, and Thomas merely had to comply with the previous policy: A demonstrated testosterone level below 10 nanomoles per liter.
Critics of the NCAA have proposed trans women should compete separately from cis women. Thomas told Barnes she objects to that so-called solution.
“If you say, like, you can compete, but you can’t score or you’re in an extra lane nine, that’s very othering towards trans people,” said Thomas. “And it is not offering them the same level of respect and opportunity to play and to compete.”
She told them it comes down to this: Trans women are women.
“It’s no different than a cis woman taking a spot on a travel team or a scholarship. It’s a part of athletics, where people are competing against each other. It’s not taking away opportunities from cis women, really. Trans women are women, so it’s still a woman who is getting that scholarship or that opportunity,” she said.
Besides looking to the Olympic trials, Thomas said she will attend grad school in the fall and plans to focus on civil rights and public interest law.
“Having seen such hateful attacks on trans rights through legislation, fighting for trans rights and trans equality is something that I’ve become much more passionate about and want to pursue,” said Thomas.
Watch ESPN’s report on Lia Thomas by clicking here.
Swimmer Lia Thomas breaks silence about backlash, future plans – GMA
More than 40 openly LGBTQ athletes are expected to compete in the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics that open on Friday.
Outsports.com notes eight Americans — including speedskater Conor McDermott-Mostowy and figure skater Amber Glenn — are among the 44 openly LGBTQ athletes who will compete in the games. The LGBTQ sports website also reports Ellis Lundholm, a mogul skier from Sweden, is the first openly transgender athlete to compete in any Winter Olympics.
“I’ve always been physically capable. That was never a question,” Glenn told Outsports.com. “It was always a mental and competence problem. It was internal battles for so long: when to lean into my strengths and when to work on my weaknesses, when to finally let myself portray the way I am off the ice on the ice. That really started when I came out publicly.”
McDermott-Mostowy is among the six athletes who have benefitted from the Out Athlete Fund, a group that has paid for their Olympics-related training and travel. The other beneficiaries are freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy, speed skater Brittany Bowe, snowboarder Maddy Schaffrick, alpine skier Breezy Johnson, and Paralympic Nordic skier Jake Adicoff.
Out Athlete Fund and Pride House Los Angeles – West Hollywood on Friday will host a free watch party for the opening ceremony.
“When athletes feel seen and accepted, they’re free to focus on their performance, not on hiding who they are,” Haley Caruso, vice president of the Out Athlete Fund’s board of directors, told the Los Angeles Blade.
Four Italian LGBTQ advocacy groups — Arcigay, CIG Arcigay Milano, Milano Pride, and Pride Sport Milano — have organized the games’ Pride House that will be located at the MEET Digital Culture Center in Milan.
Pride House on its website notes it will “host a diverse calendar of events and activities curated by associations, activists, and cultural organizations that share the values of Pride” during the games. These include an opening ceremony party at which Checcoro, Milan’s first LGBTQ chorus, will perform.
ILGA World, which is partnering with Pride House, is the co-sponsor of a Feb. 21 event that will focus on LGBTQ-inclusion in sports. Valentina Petrillo, a trans Paralympian, is among those will participate in a discussion that Simone Alliva, a journalist who writes for the Italian newspaper Domani, will moderate.
“The event explores inclusivity in sport — including amateur levels — with a focus on transgender people, highlighting the role of civil society, lived experiences, and the voices of athletes,” says Milano Pride on its website.
The games will take place against the backdrop of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s decision to ban trans women from competing in women’s sporting events.
President Donald Trump last February issued an executive order that bans trans women and girls from female sports teams in the U.S. A group of Republican lawmakers in response to the directive demanded the International Olympics Committee ban trans athletes from women’s athletic competitions.
The IOC in 2021 adopted its “Framework on Fairness, Inclusion and Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity and Sex Variations” that includes the following provisions:
• 3.1 Eligibility criteria should be established and implemented fairly and in a manner that does not systematically exclude athletes from competition based upon their gender identity, physical appearance and/or sex variations.
• 3.2 Provided they meet eligibility criteria that are consistent with principle 4 (“Fairness”, athletes should be allowed to compete in the category that best aligns with their self-determined gender identity.
• 3.3 Criteria to determine disproportionate competitive advantage may, at times, require testing of an athlete’s performance and physical capacity. However, no athlete should be subject to targeted testing because of, or aimed at determining, their sex, gender identity and/or sex variations.
The 2034 Winter Olympics are scheduled to take place in Salt Lake City. The 2028 Summer Olympics will occur in Los Angeles.
Sports
‘Heated Rivalry’ stars to participate in Olympic torch relay
Games to take place next month in Italy
“Heated Rivalry” stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie will participate in the Olympic torch relay ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics that will take place next month in Italy.
HBO Max, which distributes “Heated Rivalry” in the U.S., made the announcement on Thursday in a press release.
The games will take place in Milan and Cortina from Feb. 6-22. The HBO Max announcement did not specifically say when Williams and Storrie will participate in the torch relay.
The Washington Capitals will host Pride Night on Saturday, Jan. 17, when they host the Florida Panthers at Capital One Arena. A special ticket offer featuring a Pride-themed Capitals rainbow jersey is available at washcaps.com.
Fans are invited to a pre-game Block Party at District E beginning at 5 p.m. The event will feature a performance by the band NovaKane. Specialty happy hour food and beverages will be available, as well as giveaways. There will also be a presence by several local LGBTQ+ community organizations.
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