Lia Thomas, the male swimmer currently dominating female Ivy League swimming, is utterly shameless. And so is Robert Sanchez, the writer who profiled Thomas in an exclusive interview for Sports Illustrated. Sanchez writes:
In her first year swimming for the Penn women’s team after three seasons competing against men, Thomas throttled her competition. She set pool, school and Ivy League records en route to becoming the nation’s most powerful female collegiate swimmer.
It is true that Thomas “throttled” the competition. But the rest is a lie. Thomas is not “en route to becoming the nation’s most powerful female collegiate swimmer” because Thomas is not actually a female swimmer.
Thomas tells Sanchez, “I want to swim and compete as who I am.” Very well. But athletes should also compete according to what they are — male or female. To ignore this biological distinction is to make a mockery of female sports.