Transgender Swimming: Goodwill

IIn March, Lia Thomas won the American College Championship in the 500-yard freestyle. The student, who was a fairly successful swimmer on the University of Pennsylvania’s men’s team until 2019, is the first transgender woman to ever win an elite collegiate championship in the United States. At the end of May, Thomas spoke in a TV interview with broadcasters ESPN and ABC about her goal of being able to participate in trials before the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

Now it’s clear: Neither Leah Thomas nor other trans women will compete in the women’s swimming competitions there. This was prevented by regulations passed by FINA in Budapest. This is the purpose of the rulebook. It has been Leah Thomas’ success in particular that swimmers, active and former, but also other female athletes such as Martina Navratilova, who was once the best tennis player in the world, have pointed out: This is how transgender athletes excel as they go from boy to The man is during puberty and is provided by nature with the after effects of the concomitant testosterone surge. From now on, gender change must be completed by the age of 12, otherwise only transgender women have the right to start in the “open class” declared by the Muslim FINA President.