{"id":1262483,"date":"2022-02-01T17:24:05","date_gmt":"2022-02-01T22:24:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1262483"},"modified":"2022-02-01T17:24:10","modified_gmt":"2022-02-01T22:24:10","slug":"several-members-of-upenn-swimming-diving-team-voice-support-for-lia-thomas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/several-members-of-upenn-swimming-diving-team-voice-support-for-lia-thomas\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Several\u2019 Members Of UPenn Swimming, Diving Team Voice Support For Lia Thomas"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fseveral-members-of-upenn-swimming-diving-team-voice-support-for-lia-thomas%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1262483&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Several members of the UPenn women\u2019s diving and swimming team voiced their support for transgender swimmer Lia Thomas in a statement, following multiple reports \u2014 reportedly from teammates \u2014 condemning Thomas\u2019 participation on the team.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want to express our full support for Lia in her transition,\u201d the athletes said. \u201cWe value her as a person, teammate, and friend. The sentiments put forward by an anonymous member of our team are not representative of the feelings, values, and opinions of the entire Penn team, composed of 39 women with diverse backgrounds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to ESPN, the statement was not signed but a spokesperson for UPenn said the statement \u201crepresented \u2018several\u2019 members of the team.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe recognize this is a matter of great controversy and are doing our best to navigate it while still focusing on doing our best in the pool and classroom,\u201d the statement continued.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Thomas \u2014 formerly known as Will Thomas \u2014 swam for the men\u2019s swimming team for three years before joining the women\u2019s program this year.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In November, Thomas smashed the record in the 200 and the second-fastest 500 freestyle events, with both times breaking UPenn program records. Thomas later won the 1650 free by a whopping 38 seconds, the 500 free by 12 seconds, and the 200 free by seven seconds.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Thomas\u2019 participation in women\u2019s athletics has drawn the ire of many who see Thomas\u2019 massive victories as unfair, which includes at least two of Thomas\u2019 UPenn teammates.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As reported by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/lia-thomas-teammate-upenn-might-sue-anyone-barring-thomas-from-ncaa-championship\">The Daily Wire<\/a>, the UPenn administration might sue anyone who attempts to stop Thomas from swimming in the NCAA women\u2019s swimming championship, with the Ivy League Championships scheduled for Feb. 16-18.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have a feeling that if USA Swimming changes their rules, they will be filing a lawsuit for Lia to swim, but they wouldn\u2019t do that for us,\u201d Thomas\u2019 teammate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/sports\/lia-thomas-penn-swimming-teammate-interview\">told<\/a> Fox News.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re just proving, once again, that they don\u2019t actually care about their women athletes,\u201d she continued. \u201cThey say that they care and that they\u2019re here for our emotions, but why do we have to be gracious losers? \u2026 Who are you to tell me that I shouldn\u2019t want to win because I do want to win. I\u2019m swimming. I\u2019m dedicating more than 20 hours a week to the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She added, \u201cObviously, I want to win. You can\u2019t just tell me I should be happy with second place. I\u2019m not. And these people in Penn\u2019s administrative department who just think that women should just roll over \u2014 it\u2019s disturbing, and it\u2019s reminiscent of the 1970s when they were fighting for Title IX and stuff like that. They don\u2019t actually care about women at all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Thomas\u2019 teammate discussed the inherent physical advantages that Thomas possesses, saying that a year of hormone treatment does not change that fact.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not just the difference between two girls and how one might have slightly larger lungs and that gives them a slight advantage \u2026 These are monumental advantages that biological males just develop through puberty, and it\u2019s not something that a year of [hormone treatments] can suppress because they still have all the muscle mass they had from the last 20 years,\u201d she said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers, and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to sports@dailywire.com.<\/p>\n<p>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\">member<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Several members of the UPenn women\u2019s diving and swimming team voiced their support for transgender swimmer Lia Thomas in a statement, following multiple reports \u2014 reportedly from teammates \u2014 condemning Thomas\u2019 participation on the team.\u00a0 \u201cWe want to express our full support for Lia in her transition,\u201d the athletes said. \u201cWe value her as a &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1262483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1262483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1262483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1262483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1262483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1262483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1262483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}