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A group of former collegiate swimmers sent a letter to the NCAA Board of Governors last week arguing that it “failed everyone” by allowing transgender University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas to compete.
Thomas officially capped her collegiate career with an NCAA championship victory in the 500-yard freestyle event earlier this month.
The letter is signed by multiple University of Arizona graduates but no current members of its swim team. The letter is also signed by former Arizona head coach Frank Busch, who also served as the national team director for USA Swimming, which is the national governing body for swimming in the U.S.
“The decisions of the NCAA this year hoped to appease everyone by allowing Lia Thomas to compete directly with women. Instead, the NCAA has successfully failed everyone. A target was placed on the back of a trans athlete subjecting this person to devastating national outcry and humiliation. This swimmer’s lone points for Penn this March catapulted a team to a top-20 program in the country after failing to score a single point last year. Additionally, women athletes competing in the meet were forced to swim in unfair direct competition therefore eliminating all integrity of the entire championship meet,” reads the letter, signed The Women of Arizona Swimming & Diving.
The letter echoes prior criticism of Thomas leveled by some teammates who protested her participation in anonymous letters and interviews throughout the season.
Thomas competed for three years on the men’s team at Penn before joining the women’s team—after sitting out the 2020–21 swim season and undergoing hormone suppression—and winning an NCAA championship in one of the three events in which she reached the finals.
