Lia Thomas Wins an N.C.A.A. Swimming Title
nytimes.comATLANTA — Lia Thomas, the transgender woman whose record-threatening times on the University of Pennsylvania’s swim team made her a star of college athletics and a symbol of the debate over sports and gender identity, won an N.C.A.A.
championship in the 500-yard freestyle on Thursday. Thomas, a fifth-year senior who arrived for the swimming championships in Atlanta as the top seed in the 500 and 200 freestyle races, completed the race in 4 minutes, 33.24 seconds, more than a second ahead of the runner-up.
Thomas’s victory made her the first openly transgender woman to win an N.C.A.A. swimming title, a feat that came nearly three years after the hurdler CeCe Telfer became the first openly transgender person to capture an N.C.A.A.
championship. But Thomas’ triumph in Atlanta — indeed, her very presence at the swimming championships as a contender — came amid a far larger storm, particularly in statehouses and right-wing media, about sports participation by transgender girls and women seeking to compete in girls and women’s divisions.
