Penn swimmer alleges Lia Thomas colluded with fellow transgender athlete to lose

A organic feminine member of the College of Pennsylvania girls’s swimming workforce mentioned she believes her transgender teammate Lia Thomas colluded with a Yale transgender athlete so she might lose to show a degree, in response to a report.

Yalie Iszac Henig, who's transitioning from feminine to male, beat Thomas in each the ladies’s 100- and 400-yard freestyle races throughout an Ivy League swim meet on Jan. 8.

Henig was reportedly capable of compete on the ladies’s workforce as a result of she had but to start out testosterone therapy.

Thomas, who has been shattering girls’s workforce information, has change into a lightning rod as her story has gained nationwide consideration in current months. She beforehand competed as a person for 3 seasons at UPenn.

Her organic feminine teammate instructed OutKick on situation of anonymity that she believes Thomas and Henig hatched a plan throughout the current meet.

“ [Lia’s] time, I don’t assume she was attempting,” she instructed the outlet. “I do know they’re buddies and I do know they had been speaking earlier than the meet. I feel she let her win to show the purpose that, ‘Oh see, a female-to-male beat me.’”

Transgender Yale swimmer Iszac Henig" class="wp-image-20912810"/>
Henig was reportedly capable of compete on the ladies’s workforce as a result of she had but to start out testosterone therapy.
yalebulldogs.com

When requested if she believed the pair colluded, the swimmer mentioned: “I do. I can’t say for certain, however I wouldn’t be shocked if I came upon that was one hundred pc true.”

Henig received the 100 freestyle race with a time of 49.57 seconds. Thomas touched the wall in 52.84 seconds – although she swam the 100 freestyle in 49.42 seconds throughout a November tri-meet with Princeton and Cornell, OutKick reported.

The nameless swimmer additionally believes Thomas wasn’t giving her all within the 200-yard freestyle, which she received with a time of 1:48.73.

Lia Thomas
Thomas’ teammate believes she wasn’t attempting throughout the meet.
AP Picture/Chris Szagola

“I used to be on deck and mentioned to a good friend, ‘She’s actually not attempting.’ You can simply inform,” she instructed OutKick. “It was blatantly apparent. I used to be watching the 200 free and he or she was actually holding tempo with the opposite ladies.

“She was No. 1 within the nation at one level. These are undoubtedly proficient swimmers, however they’re not the caliber of being on the high within the nation or something like that,” she mentioned.

“You'll be able to inform when somebody is dying they usually’re swimming gradual,” the swimmer added. “You may also inform when somebody shouldn't be attempting and I might see [in the 200 freestyle] that Lia was not attempting.”

Transgender Yale swimmer Iszac Henig
Henig received the 100 freestyle race on the Jan. 8 meet with a time of 49.57 seconds.
iszac.henig/Instagram

The swimmer’s accusations come because the NCAA adopted new laws for a sport-by-sport strategy for transgender athletes, bringing the group in step with the US and Worldwide Olympic Committees.

The new NCAA laws require Thomas and transgender student-athletes to doc testosterone ranges, which should meet sport-specific ranges, 4 weeks earlier than their sport’s championship picks.

Lia Thomas
Thomas beforehand competed as a person for 3 seasons at UPenn.
Hunter Martin/Getty Pictures

It's unclear when Thomas transitioned from male to feminine. As per NCAA guidelines, not less than one yr of testosterone suppression therapy is required to have the ability to compete as a lady.

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