Transgender Ivy League swimmers face off

Lia Thomas, a transgender swimmer who has shattered records on the University of Pennsylvania women’s team after three years of competing as a man, lost two events Saturday to Yale’s Iszac Henig, who is transitioning from female to male, The New York Post and Daily Mail reported.

In UPenn’s final home meet of the season, Henig won the 100-meter freestyle with a time of 49.57 seconds, while Thomas finished 5th with a time of 52.84 seconds. In the 400-meter freestyle relay, Henig finished his leg in 50.45 seconds to Thomas’ 51.94 seconds.

Onlookers told the Mail that Thomas appeared to be “barely trying.”

Thomas is allowed to compete under current NCAA rules, which require that male-to-female transgender athletes must complete a full year of testosterone suppression treatment before being allowed to play women’s sports. The rules do not, however, “take bone density, accumulated muscle mass, or other considerations into account,” National Review noted.

According to NBC News, Thomas completed 2-and-a-half years of treatment before she began competing as a female and has support “from her school, from her team, [and] from her league.”

Last month, Thomas finished a 1,650-meter freestyle event 38 seconds ahead of the 2nd place finisher. In video of the race, the crowd hardly responds to Thomas’ win but cheers loudly for the runner (swimmer?) up.

Henig explained in a June New York Times piece that he was allowed to continue competing on the women’s team after he agreed to delay testosterone treatment, even though that meant donning a “women’s swimsuit for competition and [being] reminded of a self I no longer feel attached to.”

After one of his wins, Henig pulled down his bathing suit top, revealing the scars from his double mastectomy.

Lia Thomas, a transgender swimmer who has shattered records on the University of Pennsylvania women’s team after three years of competing as a man, lost two events Saturday to Yale’s Iszac Henig, who is transitioning from female to male, The New York Post and Daily Mail reported. In UPenn’s final home meet of the season,…

Lia Thomas, a transgender swimmer who has shattered records on the University of Pennsylvania women’s team after three years of competing as a man, lost two events Saturday to Yale’s Iszac Henig, who is transitioning from female to male, The New York Post and Daily Mail reported. In UPenn’s final home meet of the season,…