The University of Pennsylvania praised Lia Thomas for emerging victorious at the NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships.
Thomas — a transgender who claims female identity — placed first in the 500-yard freestyle, setting a school record in the process. University of Virginia swimmer Emma Weyant earned second. Thomas also placed fifth in the 200-yard freestyle and eighth in the 100-yard freestyle, earning First-Team All-American honors in all three events.
The University of Pennsylvania’s official news outlet, Penn Today, published a piece featuring Thomas’ performance. “For the first time in the history of the women’s swimming and diving team, a Quaker has won an individual national championship,” the article proclaimed, also noting that “Thomas is the first female Ivy League swimmer to win a national title in 22 years.” Among other tags used to classify the article was “Historic Sporting Events.”
The Ivy League school also featured Thomas on its Instagram page. The post, which did not allow users to comment, has gained over 2,500 likes.
Thomas — who also clinched the title of “High-Point Swimmer of the Meet” at the Ivy League Swimming and Diving Championships last month — has been the subject of much national controversy. In an exclusive interview with The Daily Wire, one of Thomas’ female teammates reacted to the victories, observing that the women who placed behind Thomas appear to recognize that they have been slighted.
“I think that there’s not really room for anyone to react to this situation in any way, other than saying they think it’s really progressive and the right thing,” said the swimmer, referring to the environment of censorship at Ivy League universities. “The one thing I will say is if you want to tune into the livestreams and watch these podiums — not just the races, the podiums — and you look at the faces of the girls who are second, third … you see a smile, but they can only hold it up for so long. You can kind of see a little bit of sadness knowing that maybe they would be first.”
Following the NCAA Championships, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) announced that he would sign an official proclamation declaring Emma Weyant — a native of Sarasota — the victor of the 500-yard freestyle event.
“If you look at what the NCAA has done by allowing basically men to compete in women’s athletics, in this case, the swimming, you had the number one woman who finished was from Sarasota and then Weyant, she won the silver medal, she’s been an absolute superstar her whole career,” DeSantis said during a press conference. “She trains, I mean, to compete at that level is very, very difficult. And you don’t just roll out of bed and do it. That takes grit, that takes determination, and she’s been an absolute superstar and she had the fastest time of any woman in college athletics.”
“Now, the NCAA is basically taking efforts to destroy women’s athletics,” he continued. “They’re trying to undermine the integrity of the competition, and they’re crowning somebody else the woman’s champion and we think that’s wrong… this is a Floridian who I think deserves to be recognized, you know, we’re going to be doing a proclamation saying that Emma is the best female swimmer in the 500 meter freestyle, because she earned that.”
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Source: Dailywire
