Lia Thomas wins second Ivy League title with record-setting 200m swim

Lia Thomas, a transgender swimmer for College of Pennsylvania, received her second Ivy League title this week with a record-setting effort.

Friday evening, Thomas received the convention’s 200-meter freestyle competitors with a time of 1:43.12, beating second-place Samantha Shelton by over 2.5 seconds.

Thomas’ end set a brand new report at Harvard’s Blodgett Pool, besting the earlier mark of 1:43.78, and comes a day after she received the Ivy League’s 500-meter freestyle. Her time of 4:37.32 in Thursday’s occasion was additionally a Blodgett Pool report.

Thomas swam for 3 years at Penn as a male, earlier than transitioning to feminine.

Thomas has been a lightning rod all through the swim season. Whereas supporters have identified that she adopted all the principles, others have mentioned she maintains a organic benefit.

Whereas NCAA bylaws will probably be in flux after the school sports activities governing physique determined to go away eventualities like Thomas’ as much as particular person sports activities, she was permitted to compete this season as she had been present process testosterone suppression remedy for over a 12 months.

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Pennsylania’s Lia Thomas smiles after setting a meet and pool report within the 200-yard freestyle last.

AP Photograph

Caitlyn Jenner, an Olympic gold medalist within the 1976 decathlon earlier than transitioning in 2017, slammed Thomas in an look on Fox Information in January.

“I’ve mentioned from the start, organic boys shouldn't be taking part in in girls’s sports activities,” Jenner mentioned. “We have to defend girls’s sports activities.”

“[Lia Thomas] can also be not good for ladies’s sports activities,” Jenner mentioned. “It’s unlucky that that is taking place. I don’t know why she’s doing it. She is aware of when she’s swimming she’s beating the competitors by two laps. She was born as a organic boy. She was raised as a organic boy. Her cardiovascular system is greater. Her respiratory system is greater.

Pennsylvania’s Lia Thomas competes within the 200-yard freestyle last on the Ivy League girls’s swimming and diving championships.

AP Photograph

“Her palms are greater. She will be able to swim sooner. That’s a identified. All of that is woke world that we’re residing in proper now isn't working. I really feel sorry for the opposite athletes which are on the market, particularly at Penn or anybody she’s competing in opposition to, as a result of within the woke world it's a must to say, ‘Oh my gosh, that is nice.’ No it’s not.”