In a new report from The New York Times, multiple doctors confirmed the well-known yet controversial fact that trans swimmer Lia Thomas – a biological male – has an unfair advantage against biological women even after taking testosterone suppressants.
As noted in the report, Thomas competed for the University of Pennsylvania men’s swimming team for “three seasons. After undergoing more than two years of hormone replacement therapy as part of her transition, she has posted the fastest times of any female college swimmer in two events this season.”
On Thursday, sixteen members of the University of Pennsylvania women’s swimming team sent a letter to school and Ivy League officials asking them to not challenge the NCAA’s recently updated transgender policy that could potentially bar Thomas from competing against women at next month’s NCAA championships.
“We fully support Lia Thomas in her decision to affirm her gender identity and to transition from a man to a woman. Lia has every right to live her life authentically,” the letter read. “However, we also recognize that when it comes to sports competition, that the biology of sex is a separate issue from someone’s gender identity. Biologically, Lia holds an unfair advantage over competition in the women’s category, as evidenced by her rankings that have bounced from #462 as a male to #1 as a female. If she were to be eligible to compete against us, she could now break Penn, Ivy, and NCAA Women’s Swimming records; feats she could never have done as a male athlete.”
In the report, a Mayo Clinic doctor and a sports physiologist both confirmed that Thomas’s biological advantage is inescapable.
“There are social aspects to sport, but physiology and biology underpin it. Testosterone is the 800-pound gorilla,” Michael J. Joyner, the Mayo Clinic doctor, said.
“Lia Thomas is the manifestation of the scientific evidence. The reduction in testosterone did not remove her biological advantage,” Dr. Ross Tucker, the sports physiologist added.
In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, Thomas responded to criticism, saying, “I am a woman, just like anybody else on the team. I’ve always viewed myself as just a swimmer.”
The New York Times report also noted that trans woman and tennis player Renee Richards, who transitioned in her 40s, said that trans women athletes have an advantage over biological women.
“Having lived for the past 30 years, I know if I’d had surgery at the age of 22, and then at 24 went on the tour, no genetic woman in the world would have been able to come close to me. And so I’ve reconsidered my opinion,” Richards said in an interview. “There is one thing that a transsexual woman unfortunately cannot expect to be allowed to do, and that is to play professional sports in her chosen field. She can get married, live as woman, do all of those other things, and no one should ever be allowed to take them away from her.”
