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Lia Thomas, a transgender swimmer who won an NCAA women’s event in 2022 and who has said she has ambitions to compete in the Olympics, has asked Switzerland’s Court of Arbitration for Sport to overturn World Aquatics rules that prevent transgender women compete in women’s divisions.
The CAS, the world’s highest court on sports fairness, acknowledged the case in a statement on Friday and said Thomas had claimed the rules were illegal and discriminatory. “Such discrimination cannot be justified as necessary, reasonable or proportionate to achieve a legitimate sporting objective,” Thomas argued. the CAS said in a statement. that paraphrased his position.
The CAS said that the arbitration procedure began in September 2023 and that the case had been confidential, according to current procedures. But Thomas and World Aquatics, the governing body for swimming and several other aquatics sports, agreed to have the court reveal the existence of the case, the court said in its statement. Thursday, the Telegraph reported that the case had been closed.
A hearing has not been scheduled.
Lawyers for Canada-based Thomas and World Aquatics did not return messages seeking comment.
World Aquatics, which sets rules informing elite competitions including the Olympic Games, introduced a new gender policy in June 2022, allowing transgender women to compete in women’s events only if they transitioned before age 12 or before one of the first stages of puberty. . That effectively excludes transgender women who have gone through male puberty from participating in women’s races.
World Aquatics also introduced an “open” category for athletes who were not assigned female at birth. but said the division got no entry. at the first Swimming World Cup event in Berlin in October.
“World Aquatics remains confident that its gender inclusion policy represents a fair approach and remains absolutely determined to protect women’s sport,” said World Aquatics CEO Brent Nowicki. he told The Telegraph on Friday.
Thomas attended the University of Pennsylvania. She began swimming on the men’s swim team in 2017. In May 2019, Thomas began transitioning through hormone replacement therapy. For 2021, Thomas met the NCAA’s hormone therapy requirements to swim on the Penn women’s team.
In March 2022, Thomas won the 500-yard freestyle event at the NCAA Division I national swimming championships, becoming the first openly transgender woman to win a collegiate women’s swimming title. “I intend to continue swimming,” Thomas he told “Good Morning America” in May 2022. “It has been my goal to swim in the Olympic trials for a long time and I would love to achieve it.”
Swimming is one of many sports to implement policies for transgender athletes amid a wide debate over inclusion and competitive equity. Last year, athletics and cycling’s governing bodies ruled that transgender women could not compete in women’s events. The International Cycling Union made its decision in July, after American Austin Killips became the first openly transgender woman to win one of its cycling events.
(Photo: Mike Comer / NCAA Photos via Getty Images)