Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas has been at the forefront of the debate regarding transgender athletes ever since a win at the NCAA championships back in 2022. But she was dealt a pretty horrible blow this week as her Olympic dreams appear to have been crushed.
Lia Thomas has been attempting to challenge a decision from World Aquatics that banned transgender women from competing in women’s swimming events, including the Olympics. Thomas asked a Switzerland-based court to overturn the rules, claiming that they were invalid, unlawful and discriminatory. But the Court for Arbitration of Sport dismissed those claims.
“The panel concludes that she lacks standing to challenge the policy and the operational requirements in the framework of the present proceeding,” the court said in a ruling.
The ruling ends any dreams that Thomas had of competing in the Olympics as a woman. Back in November of 2021, the International Olympic Committee issued guidelines and recommendations in that all international federations develop their own sport-specific eligibility criteria for the women’s competition category, leaving it up to each sport to determine its own policy on transgender women.
With this ban from World Aquatics upheld Thomas will not be able to compete in the Olympics in the future.
Needless to say, this is horrible news for Thomas.
[Fox News]
