I’m confused! Trans swimmers Lia Thomas and Iszac Henig went head-to-head in the pool

[Anonymous]

And so it begins....

Lia Thomas, a transgender female competing on the University of Pennsylvania’s women’s swimming and diving team, prevailed in the 500-yard freestyle finals at the Ivy League Championships on Thursday, the first of several individual events that Thomas will be competing in over the course of the coming weekend.

Thomas posted an unofficial time of 4 minutes and 37.32 seconds, 7.5 seconds faster than the second-place finisher, Thomas’s teammate Catherine Buroker.

Earlier that day, Thomas finished first in the preliminary race for the same event, earning the first seed going into the finals by a nearly five-and-a-half-second margin in Thomas’s heat. In that race, the swimmer started close to the rest of the competition before easily pulling away as it went on. By the end of the preliminary race, Thomas was more than halfway through the length of the pool before the closest competitor had made her final turn.


https://www.yahoo.com/news/transgender-swimmer-lia-thomas-wins-001206560.html

[Anonymous]

I think a transgender person needs to choose between transitioning to their true gender and competing in high level athletics. Sorry, life isn’t fair. A lot of people don’t get to compete in college athletics. No one is stopping them from doing their sport recreationally.

[Anonymous]

Thomas also broke the pool record in the 500.

The previous record was held by a 2-time Olympian and 4-time World Champion

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think a transgender person needs to choose between transitioning to their true gender and competing in high level athletics. Sorry, life isn’t fair. A lot of people don’t get to compete in college athletics. No one is stopping them from doing their sport recreationally.

+1 This is exactly what Diana Nyad said in her essay (I’m assuming it was linked upthread; I didn’t read the whole thread: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/02/09/celebrate-trans-athletes-give-cisgender-women-fair-shot-victory/). It’s a fact that Lia Thomas is taking a spot away from a competitive woman swimmer who did not go through puberty and did not get all the physical advantages of an adult male body. She is taking away a woman’s ability to compete. I agree with you, PP, that life isn’t fair and Lia shouldn’t get to swim competitively in the women’s category.

Now if she had prevented going through puberty, it would be a more even playing field, but this isn’t it. She is actively erasing the chances of women.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thomas also broke the pool record in the 500.

The previous record was held by a 2-time Olympian and 4-time World Champion

Go Lia! She is so brave and amazing.

I am so proud of her and you should be too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And so it begins....

Lia Thomas, a transgender female competing on the University of Pennsylvania’s women’s swimming and diving team, prevailed in the 500-yard freestyle finals at the Ivy League Championships on Thursday, the first of several individual events that Thomas will be competing in over the course of the coming weekend.

Thomas posted an unofficial time of 4 minutes and 37.32 seconds, 7.5 seconds faster than the second-place finisher, Thomas’s teammate Catherine Buroker.

Earlier that day, Thomas finished first in the preliminary race for the same event, earning the first seed going into the finals by a nearly five-and-a-half-second margin in Thomas’s heat. In that race, the swimmer started close to the rest of the competition before easily pulling away as it went on. By the end of the preliminary race, Thomas was more than halfway through the length of the pool before the closest competitor had made her final turn.


https://www.yahoo.com/news/transgender-swimmer-lia-thomas-wins-001206560.html

This is an horrendous, disgraceful travesty.

[Anonymous]

Lia Thomas cruised easily to the win and still had a lot more left in the tank, as the plotting of Thomas’s race trajectory shows. This person easily broke a record that had stood for 15 years and could have broken up by an even larger margin if not for the fact that this person is trying to escape even more scrutiny. And transactivists are pretending this person doesn’t have an unfair, overwhelming advantage?

https://mobile.twitter.com/Scienceofsport/status/1494588013111881758

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And so it begins....

Lia Thomas, a transgender female competing on the University of Pennsylvania’s women’s swimming and diving team, prevailed in the 500-yard freestyle finals at the Ivy League Championships on Thursday, the first of several individual events that Thomas will be competing in over the course of the coming weekend.

Thomas posted an unofficial time of 4 minutes and 37.32 seconds, 7.5 seconds faster than the second-place finisher, Thomas’s teammate Catherine Buroker.

Earlier that day, Thomas finished first in the preliminary race for the same event, earning the first seed going into the finals by a nearly five-and-a-half-second margin in Thomas’s heat. In that race, the swimmer started close to the rest of the competition before easily pulling away as it went on. By the end of the preliminary race, Thomas was more than halfway through the length of the pool before the closest competitor had made her final turn.


https://www.yahoo.com/news/transgender-swimmer-lia-thomas-wins-001206560.html

This is an horrendous, disgraceful travesty.

They would have really hated swimming in the SEC conference championships then. Considering the winner there beat Thomas’ time by a couple seconds. Is that terrible too? Unfair to let her swim too? Explain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And so it begins....

Lia Thomas, a transgender female competing on the University of Pennsylvania’s women’s swimming and diving team, prevailed in the 500-yard freestyle finals at the Ivy League Championships on Thursday, the first of several individual events that Thomas will be competing in over the course of the coming weekend.

Thomas posted an unofficial time of 4 minutes and 37.32 seconds, 7.5 seconds faster than the second-place finisher, Thomas’s teammate Catherine Buroker.

Earlier that day, Thomas finished first in the preliminary race for the same event, earning the first seed going into the finals by a nearly five-and-a-half-second margin in Thomas’s heat. In that race, the swimmer started close to the rest of the competition before easily pulling away as it went on. By the end of the preliminary race, Thomas was more than halfway through the length of the pool before the closest competitor had made her final turn.


https://www.yahoo.com/news/transgender-swimmer-lia-thomas-wins-001206560.html

This is an horrendous, disgraceful travesty.

They would have really hated swimming in the SEC conference championships then. Considering the winner there beat Thomas’ time by a couple seconds. Is that terrible too? Unfair to let her swim too? Explain.

I agree! Let everyone compete against everyone. We need to get rid of age categories and “doping” regulations next. Some 12 and 13 year olds are as big as adults, plus some athletes need testosterone and other alleged PEDs. I have never gotten the sense behind segregating sports or placing artificial restrictions at all. Let people come as they are and compete and whoever wins wins. That’s fair.

[Anonymous]

So -- if Thomas' time was a disgraceful travesty -- what does that make the SEC winner's time? Should be ban her from swimming too? Is she too good to be allowed to swim (and only a freshman too -- the nerve)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So -- if Thomas' time was a disgraceful travesty -- what does that make the SEC winner's time? Should be ban her from swimming too? Is she too good to be allowed to swim (and only a freshman too -- the nerve)?

What are you even talking about? Thomas is a biological male and has no business competing against females. There are innate biological advantages a male has regardless of how they identify. A 4 year old could tell you that. It's like we live in clown world these days

[Anonymous]

probably should watch that movie kindergarten cop w/ that little boy that can break it down to us

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:probably should watch that movie kindergarten cop w/ that little boy that can break it down to us

So - it is a tumor?

Still - I’m waiting to find out how the world is ending because someone threw a good time at the Ivy championship, but that “good time” still got whacked in a strong conference. Apparently being a good swimmer is not allowed. Any good swimmer must quit I guess. Can’t have freshman girls throwing down good times. Not allowed. Unfair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And so it begins....

Lia Thomas, a transgender female competing on the University of Pennsylvania’s women’s swimming and diving team, prevailed in the 500-yard freestyle finals at the Ivy League Championships on Thursday, the first of several individual events that Thomas will be competing in over the course of the coming weekend.

Thomas posted an unofficial time of 4 minutes and 37.32 seconds, 7.5 seconds faster than the second-place finisher, Thomas’s teammate Catherine Buroker.

Earlier that day, Thomas finished first in the preliminary race for the same event, earning the first seed going into the finals by a nearly five-and-a-half-second margin in Thomas’s heat. In that race, the swimmer started close to the rest of the competition before easily pulling away as it went on. By the end of the preliminary race, Thomas was more than halfway through the length of the pool before the closest competitor had made her final turn.


https://www.yahoo.com/news/transgender-swimmer-lia-thomas-wins-001206560.html

This is an horrendous, disgraceful travesty.

Kind of “in the weeds” of swimming, but the prelims lead thing happens, especially in a distance event, due to the way they are seeded. It’s not something to focus on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:probably should watch that movie kindergarten cop w/ that little boy that can break it down to us

So - it is a tumor?

Still - I’m waiting to find out how the world is ending because someone threw a good time at the Ivy championship, but that “good time” still got whacked in a strong conference. Apparently being a good swimmer is not allowed. Any good swimmer must quit I guess. Can’t have freshman girls throwing down good times. Not allowed. Unfair.

You keep posting this as if it's unusual for a freshman to do well in NCAA women's swimming. It's not, at all.

But you're right- I mean, I just read an article about a Ukrainian bobsledder who tested positive for steroids at the olympics and was suspended. Total bs- she placed 20th. If steroids did anything, there wouldn't have been 19 clean women ahead of her, right? No one knows who the 20th place finisher in women's bobsled is anyway, so why bother? Not like the world is ending.