Trans Swimmer Lia Thomas Is Resolved to Keep Swimming Amid Backlash
Sports Illustrated, Thomas opened up about realizing she was transgender, coming out to friends and family, and how she switched from the men’s to the women’s swim team — and became both a record-breaking athlete and a lightning rod for the discussion about trans athletes.Thomas shared that she began to really struggle with her gender identity during her freshman year at UPenn. “I felt off,” she recalled, “disconnected with my body.” Despite her team having a really successful season, Thomas’ growing gender dysphoria prevented her from enjoying it. “I was very depressed.
I got to the point where I couldn’t go to school. I was missing classes. My sleep schedule was super messed up. Some days I couldn’t get out of bed,” she told SI. “I knew at that moment I needed to do something to address this.”She began the slow process of coming out to her friends and family. “I tried my best to inch closer to coming out to close friends, a couple of coaches.
But in that depressive, very struggling state of mind, it’s hard to make progress when so much of my energy is trying to get through each day,” she said.But her mental health began improving rapidly when she started hormone replacement therapy in May 2019, despite fearing that the physical changes could mark the end of her swimming career. “It surprised me,” she recalled. “I felt, mentally, a lot better and healthier pretty quickly.
