Will “Lia” Thomas, the biological male who swam on the University of Pennsylvania’s women’s swim team this past school year, has lost his bid to become the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year.
Each eligible school could submit the names of up to two female student-athletes for consideration before the selection committee chose 10 athletes from each division to determine the top 30 honorees. The NCAA selected Columbia University fencer Sylvie Binder to advance to the next round as the Ivy League conference winner.
Thomas made headlines for crushing his competition in NCAA women’s swimming, sparking widespread outrage. After years of being a mediocre swimmer on the men’s team, Thomas identified as transgender, transitioned, and then started breaking records against his female teammates and tournament competitors. Despite the controversy sparked by his competition against real women, the University of Pennsylvania nominated him for the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year Award, giving Thomas one final opportunity to rob a real woman of an accolade.
The decision to nominate Thomas after he spent the entire school year competing against real women despite his physical and biological advantages was widely panned.
“After a season of dumping on its female swimmers, forcing them to compete against a biological man who now says he is a woman, forcing them to share a locker room with said swimmer, dismissing their and their parents’ concerns summarily at every turn, even telling the female swimmers what they needed if they objected to the trans swimmer was therapy, the university now sticks a final thumb in the woman’s eyes, nominating this trans swimmer who goes by the name Lia Thomas as the University of Pennsylvania’s NCAA ‘Woman of the Year.'” Megyn Kelly said on her podcast. “This is a disgrace. Lia Thomas is not a woman.”
While it’s still tragic that he was allowed to compete against women in the first place, it’s a small consolation that he was eliminated from consideration.
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