Lia Thomas' Potential NCAA Competitor Welcomes Race Against Trans Athlete
College Football Enquirer podcast."I have great respect for Lia. Social change is always a slow and difficult process and we rarely get it correct right away," Forde, who is currently a grad student at Stanford, said."Being among the first to lead such a social change requires an enormous amount of courage, and I admire Lia for her leadership that will undoubtedly benefit many trans athletes in the future," she added.Forde is currently ranked third nationally behind Thomas and Arizona State's Emma Nordin and is expected to face off against the UPenn swimmer in March.Thomas previously competed on the men's team before transitioning and began competing on the women's team in the 2021-2022 season.In December, she won the 1,650-yard freestyle at the Zippy Invitational by more than 38 seconds.However, the controversy surrounding Thomas' transition, which began in May 2019, has prompted the NCAA to adopt a new policy for transgender student athletes.The new regulations, which took effect last week, will require transgender student athletes who identify as female to document and meet sport-specific testosterone levels at the start of the season, six months later and then four weeks before their championship selections.Previously, the NCAA required transgender female athletes to complete one year of testosterone suppression treatment before competing, although levels were never regularly checked.Forde said she understands how it feels to have her sport taken away, pointing to the postponing of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, and said that she wouldn't want Thomas to feel that loss either."In 2020, I along with most swimmers, experienced what it was like to have my chance to achieve my swimming goals taken away after years of hard.
