The College of Pennsylvania is going through a wave of criticism from skilled athletes for nominating transgender faculty swimmer Lia Thomas for the Nationwide Collegiate Athletic Affiliation’s 2022 “Girl of the Yr” award.
“That is one more slap within the face to girls,” Riley Gaines, a College of Kentucky swimmer who was additionally nominated for the award, tweeted in response to the information on Friday.
“First a feminine nationwide title and now nominated for the top award in collegiate athletics. The @NCAA has made this award nugatory.”
Thomas — who gained the 500-yard freestyle on the 2022 NCAA Ladies’s Division I Swimming and Diving Championships earlier this yr — is one among 577 graduating feminine pupil athletes nominated by their faculties for the celebrated award.
The 22-year-old’s record-smashing season this yr has been mired in controversy with some critics claiming competing within the girls’s division gave her an unfair benefit as a result of she was biologically born a male.
“This award combines athletic efficiency with teachers, service, and character. What character has Thomas proven aside from sheer selfishness and entitlement?” Gaines continued, accusing Thomas of exhibiting “disrespect” and “disregard” for different feminine athletes.
Tennis legend Martina Navratilova additionally criticized the choice.
“What's incorrect with you?!!!!!!!?” she tweeted on the NCAA.
Former NCAA swimming champ Marshi Smith, an outspoken critic in opposition to transgender girls competing in girls’s sports activities, mentioned UPenn is “doubling down on their anti-woman marketing campaign” by deciding to appoint Thomas for the honour.
“@RileyGaines deserves “NCAA Girl of the Yr” for sheer guts alone!” Smith tweeted.
In Could, Thomas acknowledged the criticism in opposition to her in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America” and mentioned she had been ready for the backlash.
“I knew there could be scrutiny in opposition to me if I competed as a girl, and I used to be ready for that,” the star athlete mentioned on the time.
“I intend to maintain swimming … It’s been a aim of mine to swim at Olympic trials for a really very long time, and I'd like to see that via,” she mentioned.
Final month, the controversy surrounding transgender girls in sports activities led to the world swimming’s governing physique, FINA, successfully banning them from competing in elite girls’s occasions.
UPenn didn't instantly touch upon the criticism over Thomas’ nomination for the NCAA award.
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