Thomas, a transgender woman who swims for the Quakers women’s swim team, won the women’s 100- and 200-yard freestyle at Harvard last month and set record times on the women’s team this season. She had previously competed on the men’s swimming team at Penn and underwent two years of hormone therapy.
In the letter obtained by CNN, the swim team members say they feel that she holds an “unfair advantage over competition.”
“We fully support Lia Thomas in her decision to affirm her gender identity and to transition from a man to a woman. Lia has every right to live her life authentically,” the letter says. “However, we also recognize that when it comes to sports competition, that the biology of sex is a separate issue from someone’s gender identity. Biologically, Lia holds an unfair advantage over competition in the women’s category, as evidenced by her rankings that have bounced from #462 as a male to #1 as a female.”
The identities of the teammates were not revealed.
The new NCAA policy states that transgender athletes will now have mandatory testosterone testing, starting with the 2022-23 academic year — at the beginning of their season and again six months later, according to rules approved this week by the NCAA Board of Governors. Additionally, they will need to be tested four weeks before championship selections.
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