18 Facts About Lia Thomas

Lia Catherine Thomas was born on May 1999 and is an American swimmer.

Lia Thomas was the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I national championship, having won the women's 500-yard freestyle event in 2022, before being barred from competing in women's events by World Aquatics.

Lia Thomas was born in May 1999 and assigned male at birth.

Lia Thomas grew up in Austin, Texas, and has an older brother.

Lia Thomas began swimming at the age of five, and was sixth in the state high school swimming championships for boys' events, competing for Westlake High School.

Lia Thomas began to question her gender identity towards the end of high school, and came out as transgender to her family after her freshman year at college, during the summer of 2018.

Lia Thomas began swimming on the men's team at the University of Pennsylvania in 2017.

Lia Thomas began transitioning using hormone replacement therapy in May 2019, and came out as a trans woman during her junior year to her coaches, friends, and the women's and men's swim teams at the University of Pennsylvania.

Lia Thomas lost muscle mass and strength through testosterone suppression and hormone replacement therapy.

In March 2022, Lia Thomas became the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I national championship in any sport after winning the women's 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:33.24; Olympic silver medalist Emma Weyant was second with a time 1.75 seconds behind Lia Thomas.

Lia Thomas did not break any records at the NCAA event, while Kate Douglass broke 18 NCAA records.

Lia Thomas was 9.18 seconds short of Katie Ledecky's NCAA record of 4:24.06.

In March 2022, Sports Illustrated reported that Lia Thomas applied for law school and planned to swim at the 2024 Summer Olympics trials.

In February 2022, in response to a proposed NCAA transgender athlete policy that could prevent Lia Thomas from competing in the NCAA championships, sixteen anonymous members of the University of Pennsylvania women's swimming team sent a letter to the university and Ivy League officials asking them not to take legal action against the proposal.

The National Women's Law Center, a non-profit organization, defended Lia Thomas, saying that she "deserves all the celebration for her success this season, but instead is being met with nationwide misogyny and transphobia".

The American Civil Liberties Union defended Thomas, saying that "It's not a women's sport if it doesn't include ALL women athletes" and that "Lia Thomas belongs on the Penn swimming and diving team".

In January 2024, Lia Thomas opened a legal challenge to the World Aquatics gender inclusion policy.

In June 2024, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that Lia Thomas did not have standing to challenge the policy, meaning she would remain ineligible to compete.