Lia Thomas says bans keeping her from women’s swimming are a ‘gut punch’

2022 NCAA swimming champion Lia Thomas has been a face at the center issues surrounding trans inclusion in sports even three years after her last competitive race. She is a symbol of power, a pariah to others, while she as shied away from the public eye outside of a sound bite in a larger piece here on there.

In the last week, she has placed herself in the public eye. On Thursday Night she was honored at the Violet Visionary Awards in Los Angeles as a recipient of their “Voice Of Inspiration” award.

In accepting the award, Thomas thanked mentors who helped her through as a collegian.

“It makes me very emotional because I remember all too well not that long ago being 18 and just realizing that I’m trans,” she said. “Feeling so excited at the prospect of being able to be who I am, but feeling so terrified to take those steps because I didn’t know any other trans people.

“Being open and out in myself felt like this impossible mountain climb, and I didn’t know if I had the strength to do it.”

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Penn erases trans swimmer Lia Thomas from school records under pressure from government in settlement
As part of an agreement with the federal government, Lia Thomas’ school records in swimming will be erased.

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To be clear, trans women — born male at birth — can compete in the men’s category.

She revealed much of this backstory in an extensive interview with WHYY Radio Wednesday. It was the first such interview she’s done in three years, where she touched on her story prior to her championship season in 2022 and the controversy therein.

The 26-year-old, now in law school, also commented on two significant events since graduation from college. Her attempt to challenge the World Aquatics ban on trans women in women’s competition in 2024, and how she has been a face of current administration’s effort to ban trans women from all sports, restrict trans people as a whole.

On the World Aquatics ban, she says the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s decision to dismiss the case still stings.

“It was a gut punch and it still hits me sometimes. It’s just like that aching grief at not being able to do the sport that I love,” she said.

Earlier this year, under threats by the current administration to pull federal funds, the University of Pennsylvania agreed to ban trans women from women’s sports and erase any school records and awards Thomas earned as a student-athlete.

Thomas said such rancor is the end product of a standard held by voices from people across the population, the current Administration and worldwide.

“You don’t get to say, ‘You can be a woman in these situations, but not in these’ because you would never do that to a cis woman,” Thomas said.

“You would never say, ‘Oh there are only certain situations in which you can be a woman.’ For trans women, a lot of people think, ‘It’s OK that I can sort of be the arbiter and pick and choose when I see them as women’.”

Even with the difficulties at the moment and hard times of the past, Thomas moves forward without regret.

“When I look back on my journey, on all the difficulties, all the highs and lows, I would do it all over again in a heartbeat,” she noted. “There’s just no substitute to living and being your authentic self. It unfortunately takes courage because of the many difficulties that there are surrounding being openly trans, especially being an openly trans athlete, but it’s absolutely worth it.”

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