Piers Morgan warns transgender swimmer at Olympics is 'threat to women's sport'

dailystar.co.uk:

Piers Morgan has responded to reports suggesting transgender swimmer Lia Thomas could target a spot at the Olympics, saying the move "cannot happen."University of Pennsylvania star Thomas hit headlines in March when she won the NCAA Division I national championship in the women's 500-yard freestyle.

After indicating in the past that she hopes to take part in the 2024 Paris Olympics summer trials, Thomas has now suggested she'll follow through with those plans."I intend to keep swimming," she told Good Morning America. "It's been a goal of mine to swim at Olympic trials for a very long time, and I would love to see that through."Thomas' surging success has become a talking point since she started to receive wider coverage, despite losing muscle mass and strength due to testosterone suppression and hormone replacement therapy (HRT).

Morgan is among those to raise resistance that Thomas is permitted to compete alongside other women and bristled at the suggestion of a place on the Olympic squad."This cannot happen," the former News of the World journalist wrote to his 7.9million Twitter followers. "She’d have never been anywhere near Olympic standard had she stayed competing as a man - which says it all about the threat she poses to the integrity of women’s sport."The debate regarding transgender athletes has intensified in recent months, and swimming is one of the sports currently in the process of revising its laws.

Cycling is in a similar predicament following the furore surrounding Emily Bridges' right to compete as a woman earlier in 2022.Thomas has explained how she fell in love with swimming at an early age but struggled increasingly with gender dysphoria, which describes a feeling of unease with one's birth sex.