The father of a University of Pennsylvania female swimmer spoke to Fox News Digital about her teammate, trans swimmer Lia Thomas. He agreed to be interviewed on the condition of anonymity because of the danger his daughter and his family could be in from those who are looking to force the acceptance of trans athletes by any means necessary.
The father mourned the fact that her daughter and the other female swimmers would “never make it” to the winner’s podium as long as transgender swimmer Thomas is still on their team.
“She is most likely going to be representing you and I and all other Americans at the Olympics,” the father, who has a medical background, said of Thomas during an interview with Fox News Digital.
“Part of the reason these little girls get so excited about this is because they see themselves possibly being [at the Olympics],” he said. “There’s a shot that they can do it if they swim hard enough, if they work hard enough, they got it, they can do it. Anybody can do it.”
“But now what do you say to your daughter? You got Lia up on the blocks, taking a spot from a cisgender woman on the Olympic team,” he continued. “How do I tell my daughter that could be you one day? You can’t. You can never be her.”
“Yes, your daughter can still participate in athletics and reap a lot of the benefits of athletics, but she’ll never be on the podium,” he added.
What all of us tend to lose track of is the pain that is being inflicted on these young women — unnecessary and life-altering pain.
Thomas was a mediocre competitive swimmer when swimming as a man. Whether he feels like a woman who’s trapped in a man’s body is irrelevant to the argument. The issue is fairness, and regardless of testosterone levels, he still swims some of the fastest times in the world — for a woman.
Swimming World:
At the Zippy Invitational in early December, Thomas swam times of 4:34.06 in the 500 free (seven tenths ahead of Arizona State’s Emma Nordin as the country’s top swimmer), 1:41.93 in the 200 free (six tenths clear of Stanford’s Torri Huske for the No. 1 spot) and 15:59.71 in the 1650 free (sixth in the country). While she is swimming slower than her lifetime bests from her days on the men’s swim team, she has already achieved “A” cuts for the NCAA Championships. Her 200 and 500 times are actually faster than the winning times at last year’s NCAA Championships.
It’s alleged that Thomas colluded with another trans swimmer, Yale transgender swimmer Iszac Henig, who’s transitioning from female to male, during a 100 freestyle race on Jan. 8. Thomas’s time for that race was slower than she’s raced before, leading to speculation that Thomas wanted to lose to take some heat off.
But for real female swimmers — who can be as competitive as any man — it must be a crushing blow to realize you can’t win.
Thomas’ cisgender teammates are “very upset” about the situation, the father who spoke with Fox News Digital said, and the girls are starting to “realize that they will never, ever be able to beat this person.”
“My daughter hates it. She doesn’t think it’s fair,” he said, adding that while his daughter hasn’t personally lost opportunities to compete, “other girls have and will, because the coach is going to take the swimmers that score the most amount of points for the team.”
The solution is obvious: create sporting bodies, sporting events for trans athletes. As far as “hurting their feelings” goes, why should some girls’ feelings be spared while others are not? It’s madness to pick and choose whose feelings are taken into account and whose aren’t.
Nothing will change until female athletes themselves rise up and demand it.
Source: PJ Media
