Recently, 2022 College graduate and transgender athlete Lia Thomas spoke publicly for the first time since the Department of Education ruled earlier this year that Penn had violated Title IX by allowing her to compete as part of the Penn women’s swimming and diving team.
Thomas appeared on the Oct. 14 episode of WHYY’s “Sports in America” podcast to discuss her swimming journey, legal battles, and transgender women in sports. Before that, Thomas most recently spoke publicly at a forum in March, prior to the Education Department’s ruling.
At Penn, Thomas competed on the men’s swimming and diving team for two years prior to her transition. She returned to competition on the women’s swimming and diving team in 2022, collecting numerous accolades across the Ivy League and NCAA — including a national championship, three Ivy League individual titles, and three school records. In July, Penn entered a voluntary resolution agreement with the government, complying with the Education Department’s demands and stripping Thomas of her individual records.
Thomas’ podcast appearance was recorded prior to Penn’s settlement.
In June 2024, Thomas lost a legal battle after challenging World Aquatics’ ban prohibiting transgender women who have gone through any part of male puberty from competing in women’s aquatics. Thomas reiterated the disappointment she expressed when the case was dismissed.
“It was a gut punch, and even now, almost a year after the case has ended, it still hits me sometimes,” Thomas told WHYY. “It’s just that aching grief at not being able to do the sport that I love.”
Thomas also expressed her feelings on people misunderstanding hormone replacement therapy. During her transition, Thomas completed 34 months of HRT.
“There are massive losses to muscle mass, strength, and endurance, and … to make blanket statements like, ‘Oh, I see you as a woman, but you just shouldn’t compete in women’s sports,’ is both transphobic and not reflective of the realities behind being trans and being on HRT,” Thomas said.
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Thomas also expanded on her struggles with gender dysphoria at the start of her time at Penn while on the men’s team, as well as the initial lack of support from her parents when she first came out.
“I knew I wanted to transition, but I couldn’t. And the pain of gender dysphoria was only getting worse every day,” she said. “So I ultimately resolved that, OK, I’ll get to the end of the season … and then after the season … surely by then I’ll have convinced my parents. … And that sort of worked … in the sense that there was sort of a light at the end of the tunnel.”
Thomas also praised the support of fellow Ivy League transgender swimmer Schuyler Bailar and men’s swimming and diving coach Mike Schnur during her transition.
“I was blown away by how supportive Mike was,” Thomas said. “He was again, very surprised and was not expecting it. But after, he paused for a moment and then collected himself, and then was fully supportive from then on.”
While Thomas has not swum competitively since the 2022 NCAA Division I championships, she revealed she does still swim recreationally at her local YMCA.
“It takes a concerted effort to hold on to those moments of joy because, for me, with everything that happened my senior year and has happened since, it’s very easy to slip into almost like a negative perception of swimming,” she said. “It takes a lot of effort to try to focus on the joy that swimming still brings me.”
