transgender swimmer Lia Thomas The U.S. said on Tuesday that she should be allowed to compete as a woman despite having physical advantages and that she “doesn’t need permission” from anyone.
The 22-year-old broke her silence on Tuesday on Good Morning America, where she also revealed her hopes of competing for America olympics,
It comes after a wave of doctors suggested — and other trans female athletes — that certain sports would always have an unfair advantage because they couldn’t undo puberty, when their biological male bodies were flooded with testosterone.
Speaking on Tuesday, Lia acknowledged she is “no medical expert,” but added that some cisgender women have more testosterone, bigger arms and legs and are taller than their competitors – so when they If not, why should they be banned?
He said, ‘I don’t need anyone’s permission to be myself.
She also said that anyone who says she is not allowed to compete is a woman transphobic, whether they support her right to transition or not.
You can’t go halfway and say “I support trans people but only to a certain point.”
“If you support transwomen and they’ve met all of the NCAA requirements, I don’t know if you can say anything like that.”
“Trans women are not a threat to the women’s sport,” she said.
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Lia Thomas appeared on Good Morning America on Tuesday where she said she hopes to swim for America at the Olympics
Thomas began transitioning in 2020 at the age of 19. Doctors say that even though she has met the requirements for hormone replacement therapy, it is not enough to reverse the effects of puberty to the extent needed to level the playing field as a male.
He dismissed the ongoing controversy over his place in the women’s section and said that he is happy now.
‘There are so many factors that go into a race and how well you do. The biggest change for me is that I am happy and sophisticated years where I spent the best of time competing with men, I was sad.
‘It is incredibly relieving to be picked up and allows me to put my all into training and racing.’
Thomas (pictured in 2017) formerly participated in the men’s team and began taking hormone therapy in 2019-2020. The pandemic gave her a break in the game and she went ahead with infection therapy
She insisted she didn’t make the transition to do better at the league table, explaining: ‘Trans people don’t make the transition to athletics. We make the transition to being happy and authentic and being ourselves.
“Transitioning to profit is not something that affects our decisions,” she said.
She also said that she was ready to give up her swimming career to transition and was not sure if she would be allowed to compete as a woman.
When she began taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT), she said she immediately slowed down in the water.
‘I am not a medical expert, but there is a lot of variation among cis female athletes. Cis are women who have longer muscles and have more testosterone. Should this disqualify him too?’
Doctors say that Lia has an unfair advantage that cannot be reversed because she went through puberty before taking hormones to become a woman.
While the hormone lowered her testosterone levels, some experts say that one year or four years of therapy isn’t enough to reverse what happens to the male teen body.
‘Sport has social aspects, but physiology and biology are its basis. Testosterone is an 800-pound gorilla,’ Michael J. Joyner, a Mayo Clinic doctor, said yesterday in an interview with the New York Times.
He added Tuesday on Good Morning America: ‘Body size, arm size, leg size, bone density [are all factors] But the main thing is the interaction of exercise training and muscles.
‘I think the evidence so far would suggest a period of one year, two, three or four years [of hormone therapy] is insufficient.’
Rejecting the doctor’s comments, Lia says she hopes to participate in the Olympics.
‘Swimming has been my goal at the Olympic Trials for a long time. I’d love to see that,’ she said.
Lia Thomas after winning the 500 yard freestyle in March. the runners-up posed together
Dr. Michael Joyner, left, and Dr. Ross Tucker, right, both say the biological benefit is inevitable.
‘Lia Thomas is the expression of scientific evidence. Dr. Ross Tucker, a sports physiologist, said, ‘The reduction in testosterone did not overcome its biological advantage.’
Her comments confirm the fears of Lia’s competitors, who literally went out of the water after beginning the transition from male to female at age 19.
She has since risen to the top of the women’s league table, despite being unheard of as a male athlete.
The swimmer’s teammates at Princeton have fought anonymously to have her out of the range.
Martina Navratilova says Lia has an unfair advantage
They are afraid to speak publicly about the issue because they are kicked off the team or teased by LGBTQ activism.
In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, Lia defended her position, saying: ‘I am a woman, just like anyone else on the team. I have always seen myself as a swimmer.
‘This is what I’ve done for so long; This is what I like. ‘I get in the water every day and do my best,’ she said.
In a Times article, a teammate revealed that she was rejected from a social eating club in Princeton because she was branded ‘transphobic’ for questioning Leia’s place in the game.
His place has divided the world of sports.
Some say she should be allowed to compete in the category she identifies with, while others, including tennis legend Martina Navratilova – who is lesbian – say it is unfair.
Navratilova was asked to tweet about Lia’s status and suggest that she should compete with an asterisk next to her name.
She told the Times: ‘I played against tall women, I played against strong women, and I beat them all.
Caitlyn Jenner has also considered Lia’s place in the women’s category as different
‘But if I had to face the male equivalent of Lia in tennis, it’s biology. I didn’t have any shots. And I would get burnt.’
Trans tennis player Renee Richards transitioned from female to male in her 40s.
She said in an interview in 2012 that she had changed her position to accept that male biology gives trans female athletes an advantage.
‘Having lived for the past 30 years, I know that if I had surgery at 22, and then went on tour at 24, no genetic woman in the world would have come close to me. And so I have reconsidered my opinion.
‘There is one thing that a transsexual woman unfortunately cannot hope to be allowed to do, and that is to play a professional sport in her chosen field. She can marry, live as a woman, do all other things, and no one should be allowed to take her away from her.
‘But this limit – that’s just life. I know because I lived it,’ she told Slate in 2012, years before Leah’s transition.