(National Review) Lia Thomas, the transgender swimmer who dominated the 2021-2022 NCAA women’s swimming and diving season, has been nominated by the University of Pennsylvania to receive the NCAA’s Woman of the Year award. Up to two female athletes can be nominated by eligible schools and this year, there is a total of 577 nominees.
The award is designed to recognize “female student-athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves in their community, in athletics and in academics throughout their college careers.”
Prior to this past season, Thomas had competed on the UPenn men’s team with middling results, before breaking out as a member of the women’s team, setting numerous records over the course of the season and dominating at both the Ivy League and NCAA championships.
Thomas’s historic season was the subject of much controversy, and drew criticism from even her teammates, 16 of whom wrote an anonymous letter to UPenn and the Ivy League imploring them not to challenge stricter NCAA rules for transgender athletes’ participation, which were released seemingly in no small part due to Thomas’s competitors’ experience.
“Biologically, Lia holds an unfair advantage over competition in the women’s category, as evidenced by her rankings that have bounced from #462 as a male to #1 as a female,” reads the letter, which went on to argue that its signatories would be kicked off the team and blacklisted on the job market if their names were made public.
