Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, who broke several records racing on the women’s team at Penn following her transition, is currently prohibited from competing in the Olympics based on the current rules from World Aquatic. But she is challenging those rules in an effort to make a push for the Olympics.
According to a report from the Associated Press, Lia Thomas has asked a Swiss sports court to overturn the rules imposed by World Aquatics that currently bar her from competing in elite women’s races throughout the world. Thomas argues that the rules are discriminatory.
“Ms Thomas seeks an order from the CAS declaring that the [World Aquatics rules] are unlawful, invalid, and of no force and effect,” said the court based in the Olympic home city of Lausanne, Switzerland, according to the Associated Press.
The current rules have been in effect since June of 2022 when World Aquatics banned transgender women who have been through male puberty from competing in women’s races.
If Thomas is successful in challenging the rules, she could to make a push to try to qualify for the Olympics as the Associated Press reports that the transgender swimmer “hoped one day to compete in U.S. Olympic trials.”
[ESPN]
