‘Trans people are allowed to be good at sport’: Caitlyn Jenner slammed by charity after claiming transgender swimmer Lia Thomas ‘lacks integrity’
Caitlyn Jenner has faced backlash from charity Mermaids after suggesting transgender swimmer Lia Thomas should not be competing against cisgender women and should have more ‘integrity’.University of Pennsylvania swimmer Thomas, 22, won both the 100 and 200-metre races against Harvard University this month.
Former Olympian Jenner, who came out as a transgender woman in 2015, has come under fire for her views on other transgender athletes, and has now called for the ‘rules to be changed’.Verity, Trans Inclusion in Sports Youth Worker at Mermaids, a charity supporting young trans people, hit back at her comments, telling Metro.co.uk: ‘Caitlyn Jenner has, again, used her platform of privilege against the trans community… In fact, Lia has won some races and set records, but she has also had her times beaten by much younger athletes and cis female swimmers.’Verity added: ‘Trans people are allowed to be good at sport, just because you’re trans does not make you superhuman.
You must train, have the right coaches, nutrition, training programmes, facilities, funding and most of all, skill within the sport. ‘Additionally, people naturally gravitate towards sports that are right for them.
We celebrate cis athletes like Michael Phelps for the way his body recovers and his build being ideal for the sport – but no one calls him out for that, because he’s not trans.’Referring to Jenner’s run for California governor last year, which she lost, he went on: ‘Caitlyn Jenner only last year was using trans kids in sport for political gain when she was running for government to position herself. ‘The only person in this conversation that is bad is Jenner herself – who also plays on a women’s sports team.’‘We need sports to be open,’ he pointed.
