Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas sets pool record in 500-yard freestyle win at Ivy League Championship

Thomas turned an Ivy League champion with a time of 4:37.32 within the girls's occasion.
AP

College of Pennsylvania transgender swimmer Lia Thomas received the ladies’s 500-yard freestyle on the Ivy League Championships Thursday — setting a brand new pool file.

Thomas, who transitioned from male to feminine, turned an Ivy League champion with a time of 4:37.32 within the girls’s occasion – one of the best time ever recorded at Harvard College’s Blodgett Pool.

Thomas’ rivals saved it shut till roughly the midway mark – when she took a large lead and reduce three seconds off her private greatest, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Penn sophomore Catherine Buroker got here in second, whereas the defending Ivy League champ — Princeton sophomore Ellie Marquardt – completed in third.

Thomas, 22, entered the Ivy League Championships, which run by means of Saturday, as the highest seed within the 200-yard, 500-yard and 1,650-yard freestyle occasions, the Inquirer reported.

🥇🥈

Lia Thomas is the @IvyLeague champion within the 500 free. Her time of 4:37.32 is a brand new pool file.

Catherine Buroker finishes in second.#FightOnPennpic.twitter.com/ki2SQdxn6Q

— Penn Swimming & Diving (@PennSwimDive) February 17, 2022

Thomas and Yale College’s Iszac Henig, who's transitioning from feminine to male whereas competing as a lady, had the high two instances within the 800-yard freestyle relay Wednesday, however neither squad received the general race. Harvard completed first, with Yale coming in second and Penn in third.

Henig, in the meantime, took dwelling the 50-yard freestyle Thursday, successful in a time of 21.93 seconds — besting his personal pool file set throughout prelims, ESPN reported.

Thomas, who wasn’t made out there to the media after her win, has been thrust within the nationwide highlight amid a debate over whether or not transgender athletes ought to be allowed to compete towards organic females in sporting occasions.

Lia Thomas waits to compete in a qualifying warmth of the five hundred yard freestyle occasion.

AP

Thomas, high, crosses paths with teammate Anna Sofia Kalandadze on the best way to successful the 500-yard freestyle last.

AP

Thomas, left, shakes fingers with teammate Anna Sofia Kalandadze after Thomas completed first.

AP

Supporters say she has adhered to all eligibility necessities, together with being on hormone remedy for greater than two years.

Nonetheless, 16 of Thomas’ teammates wrote Penn and Ivy League officers searching for for her to be banned from the championships, the Inquirer reported.

NCAA officers then introduced it will not alter the beforehand authorised testosterone threshold for transgender girls to compete, paving the best way for Thomas to get into the pool.

Thomas appears to be like as much as the board after successful the 500-yard freestyle last.

AP

Thomas finishes first within the 500-yard freestyle last nicely forward of the competitors.

AP

Thomas is scheduled to swim the 200 freestyle Friday and both the 1,650- or 100-yard freestyle on Saturday, ESPN reported.

Penn senior Andie Myers donned a facemask with a transgender flag Thursday in help of Thomas, she advised ESPN.

“I need everybody at this meet to know that I help her,” Myers mentioned. “She’s labored for all of this and he or she’s given up a lot to transition and to be authentically herself. I believe it’s actually necessary and I believe it’s actually courageous what she’s doing at present.”

With Publish wires