{"id":1525311,"date":"2022-06-21T16:49:05","date_gmt":"2022-06-21T20:49:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1525311"},"modified":"2022-06-21T16:49:16","modified_gmt":"2022-06-21T20:49:16","slug":"lia-thomas-teammate-competitor-blast-title-as-illegitimate-in-wake-of-fina-transgender-restrictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lia-thomas-teammate-competitor-blast-title-as-illegitimate-in-wake-of-fina-transgender-restrictions\/","title":{"rendered":"Lia Thomas Teammate, Competitor Blast Title As Illegitimate In Wake Of FINA Transgender Restrictions"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/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%2Flia-thomas-teammate-competitor-blast-title-as-illegitimate-in-wake-of-fina-transgender-restrictions%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=1525311&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>A former teammate of Lia Thomas, along with a rival team member who once tied with Thomas, blasted the transgender college swimmer\u2019s championship title as illegitimate after swimming\u2019s international governing body, the International Swimming Federation (FINA), issued stringent new restrictions on transgender swimmers.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, FINA <a href=\"https:\/\/resources.fina.org\/fina\/document\/2022\/06\/19\/525de003-51f4-47d3-8d5a-716dac5f77c7\/FINA-INCLUSION-POLICY-AND-APPENDICES-FINAL-.pdf\">released<\/a> a new \u201cgender inclusion policy\u201d that allows only transgender swimmers who transitioned from male to female before age 12 to compete in women\u2019s events.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m very hopeful about it,\u201d Thomas\u2019 teammate, who was granted anonymity out of fear of backlash, said of the new restrictions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am incredibly happy that Lia Thomas will never be an Olympic gold medalist. I think that\u2019s great. But this doesn\u2019t actually fix the NCAA [National Collegiate Athletic Association],\u201d she\u00a0told The Daily Wire.<\/p>\n<p>Thomas, 22, competed on the men\u2019s team at the University of Pennsylvania before coming out as transgender in 2019 and starting testosterone blockers and estrogen. Last year, Thomas competed on the women\u2019s team, sparking a national debate. In March, Thomas won the NCAA Division I national championship after winning the women\u2019s 500-yard freestyle event.<\/p>\n<p>The NCAA\u2019s current <a href=\"https:\/\/ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com\/inclusion\/lgbtq\/INC_TransgenderHandbook.pdf\">policy<\/a>\u00a0allows biological males to compete on women\u2019s teams after completing just one year of\u00a0testosterone suppression treatment.<\/p>\n<p>Thomas\u2019 teammate said she \u201cwould love\u201d for the NCAA to rescind Thomas\u2019 championship title, although she\u2019s doubtful that will happen. Even if the NCAA follows FINA\u2019s lead and restricts transgender athletes on women\u2019s teams, Thomas will likely be \u201cgrandfathered in,\u201d her teammate said, adding that she finds that \u201cridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Riley Gaines, a University of Kentucky swimmer, tied with Thomas for fifth place in the 200-yard freestyle final at the NCAA championship in March. She left the competition that day <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/04\/04\/swimmer-who-tied-lia-thomas-taken-aback-in-trophy-handling\/\">with a sixth-place trophy<\/a> after the NCAA decided to give Thomas the fifth-place trophy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe Lia is not the fastest female in the 500-yard freestyle, therefore I don\u2019t think she should be awarded as a female national champion,\u201d Gaines told The Daily Wire.<\/p>\n<p>Gaines said the NCAA \u201cneeds to take accountability\u201d and follow FINA\u2019s lead on restricting transgender athletes on women\u2019s teams, which she called \u201ca\u00a0bold first step on behalf of fairness in women\u2019s sports.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFINA prioritized competitive fairness which is more than any other large governing body has done thus far,\u201d Gaines said, adding that she appreciated that FINA took into account science and the perspectives of other athletes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe only downfall is now that there is a set age to be transgender and allowed to compete as a female, will children be more swayed into transitioning without fully understanding what they\u2019re doing and committing to?\u201d Gaines asked.<\/p>\n<p>Thomas\u2019 teammate who spoke with The Daily Wire also praised FINA for listening to the science, but voiced a similar concern that young swimmers could be pushed into transitioning earlier.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe boys are actually slower than the girls under the age of 12. So scientifically speaking, that is actually the correct year to pick,\u201d she said. \u201cSocially, I don\u2019t agree with that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think really, scientifically, this policy makes a lot of sense, and I\u2019m also really happy that it\u2019s also going to be put into place in water polo,\u201d she said. \u201cWater polo is a very aggressive sport. People get their suits pulled down. They get clawed. I definitely don\u2019t want to see biological men on women\u2019s water polo teams.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Thomas\u2019 teammate also said that she had to share a locker room with Thomas while they were on the team together and is\u00a0concerned about the larger issue of allowing biological men into female-only spaces.<\/p>\n<p>She added that just because Thomas did not win every single event does not mean the national champion did not enjoy an unfair advantage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere have been a lot of athletes that have been caught for doping and they didn\u2019t necessarily win gold,\u201d Thomas\u2019 teammate said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A former teammate of Lia Thomas, along with a rival team member who once tied with Thomas, blasted the transgender college swimmer\u2019s championship title as illegitimate after swimming\u2019s international governing body, the International Swimming Federation (FINA), issued stringent new restrictions on transgender swimmers. On Monday, FINA released a new \u201cgender inclusion policy\u201d that allows only &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":1525313,"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-1525311","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\/1525311","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\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1525311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1525311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1525313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1525311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1525311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1525311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}