Penn’s Lia Thomas blasted the number one 200 free time and the second-fastest 500 free time in the nation on Saturday, breaking Penn program records in both events. She swept the 100-200-500 free individual events and contributed to the first-place 400 free relay in a tri-meet against Princeton and Cornell in her home pool. Penn split for the day, beating Cornell 219 to 81 but losing to Princeton, 106 to 194.
Second fastest in the nation!! There’s glory for you.
A University of Pennsylvania “women’s” swimmer named Lia Thomas, who used to go by Will as a member of the men’s swimming team, is smashing records and has many wondering if Olympic superstar Katie Ledecky will be soon losing races to a transgender competitor.
He’s smashing women’s records on account of how he’s a man.
Dang, look at the neck on Lia.
Comments
9 responses to “Blasted, broke, swept”
I honestly don’t know how these guys take pride in such accomplishments.
Oh, yeah, narcissism.
Still not beating the best women though. For easy medals, one needs to go to sports like weightlifting where the gap is +33% or more.
It’s ridiculous to think that this is at all fair to the women who had to compete against Thomas. Here’s Emma Hilton showing just how unfair it is:
https://twitter.com/FondOfBeetles/status/1466044767561830405
That the NCAA allows this is grounds for a lawsuit on the grounds of outright sexism against the female swimmers, as just saying you’re female doesn’t magically make you female. Inclusion doesn’t justify such an unfair competition.
Naif, comparing an Olympic gold medal winner to collegiate swimmers doesn’t justify Thomas being allowed to enter a competition in the women’s category.
The notion that pride comes from earned accomplishment requires a concept of honor, and more fundamentally it depends on differential desert. Unfortunately, the former is not taught by and the latter is undermined by the “prizes for all”/”no exclusion” culture.
There’s a certain segment who question the idea of desert per se. Everything you are, every capability you have is thanks to something over which you had no control; i.e., it’s all just a matter of luck. Therefore, they argue, you didn’t earn and can’t earn anything and thus can’t deserve anything. In the end, there is no desert; there is only entitlement.
It’s not difficult to see how such thinking relates to a worldview that doesn’t incorporate honor.
The article has a truly remarkable statement by the athlete in question:
It’s a beauty of ambiguity. So true, and yet so misleading.
No, being trans hasn’t made Lia any worse at doing the sport than when he was non-trans Will. But who said that was the problem?
It’s a very common ploy, talking about “being trans” as opposed to being a man who identifies as a woman. Peak deflection.
Well, my partner peaked with this article. She hasn’t really ‘got’ why I follow this issue previously, but she’s been sporty most of her life and was becoming uneasy at the sports examples I showed her. She’s a keen open water swimmer and is in awe of Katie Ledecky’s ability as a swimmer. Her words… “This is not right. Just not right. They need to do something about this, it’s not fair.” Now to get her to understand that there is no they. They are us, to borrow a phrase.
JA,
Didn’t intend to imply that it justified anything. The male-female ranges just touch, so mediocre male becomes elite female. Not quite as absurd as weightlifting, still grossly unfair. My comment was a reaction to the first comment