Lia Thomas is a transgender woman and a senior at the University of Pennsylvania. A student athlete, she originally joined the men’s swimming team; however, in 2018 she figured out that she was transgender and began hormone replacement therapy the following spring. She came out publicly in the fall of 2019. Due to the pandemic, she took a year off of school. 

Now, two and a half years after she began hormone replacement therapy (HRT), she is swimming for the women’s team. Despite her being in compliance with the NCAA rules, which were still in effect at the time she submitted her paperwork, there are those who don’t think she should be allowed to compete against cisgender women. This is due to the belief that she and other transgender female athletes have an unfair advantage over cis women. 

Sixteen of Thomas’ 40 teammates agree with that sentiment. In January, they wrote an anonymous letter stating that they felt she had this advantage due to her sex. Ironically, the letter also claims that these teammates are supportive of her transition. 

A counter letter of support was signed by over 300 former and current NCAA swimmers. The letter was organized by former Division I swimmer Schyler Bailar, who Thomas had previously reached out to for advice. Bailar was the first transgender man to compete on a Division I men’s team when he swam for Harvard University. 

Thomas isn’t the only transgender athlete currently competing in Division I women’s swimming. Iszac Henig of Yale University is a transgender man who decided to put off HRT so he could continue to compete on the women’s team. 

In January, the NCAA decided to drop its policy on transgender athletes and let individual sports make their own. USA Swimming is requiring transgender women to be on HRT for three years and prove that they don’t have a competitive advantage over cisgender women. There are, however, no such rules for transgender men. 

The belief that transgender women have an intrinsic advantage over their cisgender competitors seems to be rooted in people thinking that they have more testosterone. However, that’s not how HRT works. Being on testosterone blockers and estrogen for over two years is enough time to get someone’s testosterone to be at the same level as the average cisgender woman. The level of testosterone is how USA Swimming is determining if a transgender woman has an advantage or not. 

USA Swimming has said that these rules will go into effect for the upcoming season so they will not block Thomas from competing in any future events this season. 

So if her hormone levels are similar to a cisgender woman's, does Thomas actually have any advantages over her competitors? Yes, she's 6'4". When a swimmer jumps off the starting block, they tuck themselves together tightly (streamline) underwater to propel down the length of the pool. Being taller helps someone get down the length of the pool faster. 

But this isn't something you can regulate for transgender athletes because being tall isn’t a trans thing. If she were a 6’4” cisgender woman, she would still have this advantage. This is proven by the fact that there have been 15 female Olympic swimmers who were over 6’. One of these 15 is actually the same height as Thomas and five more come within two inches. 

Speaking of the Olympics, during the last two, there have only been five openly transgender or non-binary athletes who have participated. Only two of them were transgender women. The Tokyo 2020 Games were the first where any openly transgender athletes participated. During the 2020 and 2022 Games, 13,962 athletes participated. If transgender women truly had an unfair advantage, it’s likely that more than only two would have qualified.

Given how small the percentage of transgender athletes is and the lack of evidence that testosterone gives transgender women an advantage, is this controversy actually about helping cisgender women in sports? There is a strong argument against it, especially since a rule that someone has to compete based on their sex led to Mack Beggs, a transgender boy from Texas, wrestling in the girl’s division. He went on to win the state championships twice. The then-high schooler had asked to be moved to the boy’s division but was denied. 

Thomas, herself has largely stayed out of the conversation that surrounds her participation in the women’s division. She has only given one interview — for the SwimSwam podcast in December 2021. In it, she explained that she and her coaches expected some pushback but not as much as there has been. Thomas added that she hasn’t been reading any content related to this pushback because it isn’t healthy for her to do so. 

When asked if she had a message for athletes in a similar situation she said that she wanted to pass the help that she received from older transgender athletes onto the next generation. 
“Being a visible trans athlete I want to pass the visibility forward to the younger trans athletes and let them know that they’re not alone. And they can continue to do the sport that they love and be authentic to who they are,” she said.