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Prediction: Women's sports will go under if trans swimmer not challenged

Prediction: Women's sports will go under if trans swimmer not challenged

Bob Kellogg, Jody Brown
Dec 08, 2021

Competitive swimmer Will Thomas (center) is shown in this Penn team photo from 2018-2019. He has transitioned and now competes as a woman on the women's swim team. His recent dominance in some events - and shattering of women's records - is causing even liberals to challenge whether biological males should be allowed to compete against biological females.

Prediction: Women's sports will go under if trans swimmer not challenged

To no one's surprise, a male university athlete – who now identifies as a woman – is amassing far more top finishes as a female swimmer than he ever did in male competition.

For two full seasons – as recently as November 2019, according to his school's website – Will Thomas competed as a male swimmer at the University of Pennsylvania. In the 2019-2020 season, he competed in half of Penn's regular season events, winning the 500-meter freestyle against Villanova.

Now, after taking off a year to transition, Thomas has returned as a female to join the women's team under a new name: "Lia Thomas" – where he reportedly set "numerous pool, meet, and program records" during a three-day event in Ohio over the weekend. According to the New York Post, Thomas "blew away her [sic] competition" in the 500m event, winning the finals with a new Ivy League record.

Activist: Gender hoaxes like this hurt all women

Steve Jordahl (AFN.net)

Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth about Homosexuality says the situation with Will Thomas and other instances of men competing against women will be the end of women's sports.

LaBarbera, Peter (AFTAH) LaBarbera

"It angers me that this guy is allowed to compete in women's sports. This is an outrage," says LaBarbera. "Obviously, he has natural advantages that women don't have – and this is really going to kill women's sports if this is allowed to continue."

And it's not just endangering sports, he says, arguing that gender hoaxes in the U.S. hurt all women, eventually. "When a society gets to this level of confusion, things start falling apart. This is anti-female, anti-woman, anti-girl to the core."

And although it seems the battle is over, LaBarbera encourages conservatives – especially Christians – to keep fighting for the truth.

"The LGBTQ agenda never stops – they always want more," he tells AFN. "And now we see that many conservatives have caved on gay marriage. They're not fighting against it anymore; they've capitulated on that."

The Christian activist adds: "We have to hold conservative media accountable. They cannot start calling women 'men' and men 'women.'"

A Fox Sports article acknowledges Thomas being permitted to compete as a female is "sparking an angry response from some." Steve McConkey, president of 4 WINDS Christian Athletics, is among those.

"… I wouldn't be surprised if this is going to continue in a greater scale," he tells AFN. "This is where women have to rise up en masse at the grassroots level and say 'Enough of this.'"

McConkey fears it's going to be a growing trend that threatens women's sports. "Once [Joe] Biden got in office, within two hours he signed this pro-transgender stuff – and you're going to see in trickle down even in a greater way," he laments.

Liberal British commentator Piers Morgan made this observation in a tweet earlier this week: "If Michael Phelps began competing as a transgender woman, all hell would break loose – so why is nothing being done to stop trans athletes like Lia Thomas from destroying women's sport?"

In an interview with the New York Post, Thomas shares that competing as a woman has been "very rewarding." Clearly it has: Competing as a woman, he has been breaking a number of women's swimming records for Penn this fall.

Editor's note: A photo of Will Thomas appears to have been removed from the roster page for the 2018-2019 Penn men's swim team.

12/10/2021 - Sidebar added.