Lia Thomas’ legal battle to compete in the Olympics: the first trans athlete to win an NCAA title, the former UPenn swimmer faced backlash – but still advocates for the LGBT community

Feb 2, 2024

Trans swimmer Lia Thomas is fighting against the World Aquatics’ rules and taking her case to court in Switzerland in a bid to potentially compete in the Olympics. Photo: USA Today Sports

Thomas, formerly part of the University of Pennsylvania’s swim team, is trying to take World Aquatics to court over its rules change preventing her from competing in swimming as a transgender woman

She has courted the criticism of long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad, her former teammate Paula Scanlan, and parents of her Ivy League teammates issued a complaint letter picked up by the media

Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas made headlines back in 2021 after parents of her Ivy League teammates released a letter complaining about her inclusion as a woman in competitions.

Thomas began hormone replacement therapy in 2019, and became the first transgender athlete to win an NCAA university title in 2022, despite backlash around her inclusion. Now she is taking legal action to ensure she can compete again, including in the Olympics.

Here is what you need to know.

Lia Thomas’ fight to compete

Lia Thomas is a transgender swimmer who won an NCAA university title in 2022. Photo: X

Per The Guardian, Thomas has not competed since new rules introduced by World Aquatics in 2022 prohibited anyone who has undergone “any part of male puberty” from the female category. Before the new rules, transgender women had been allowed to compete so long as their testosterone levels were lowered. But World Aquatics claims Thomas, and other swimmers like her, have retained significant physical advantages from “undergoing male puberty”.

Thomas has engaged the law firm Tyr and is taking the case to the court of arbitration for sport in Switzerland. The case could become a benchmark for other transgender swimmers.

Lia Thomas’ athletic and gender journey

Lia Thomas has been swimming since she was five years old. Photo: @Outkick/X

Per the New Yorker, Thomas began swimming when she was five years old. Her talent was evident as she grew up, becoming one of the top swimmers in Texas. Her brother made it onto the men’s team at the University of Pennsylvania and she followed in his footsteps.

But despite her success in the water, something didn’t feel right. In an interview with Sports Illustrated, she said she began reading stories about transgender women online and was paired with a trans mentor through a group at Penn. After seeing her life in their stories, she realised she was not, in fact, a man.

It was the summer in 2018 that Thomas first realised she was transgender. In a rare interview with swimming news organisation SwimSwam, the athlete said she knew she was going to have to make a lot of decisions around her transition, and she also faced a tough journey deciding what to do with her career.

“I didn’t know what I would be able to do, if I would be able to keep swimming,” she revealed. “And so, I decided to swim out the 2018-2019 year as a man, without coming out, and that caused a lot of distress to me.”