George Brunstad: College sports complicated by athletes' gender identities

To The Daily Sun,

Lia Thomas is a strapping 6’3” biological XY chromosome male identifying as a female. Lia's qualifying times are seeded first on the official women’s competition entry lists for both the 200- and 500-yard freestyle events. Lia's times for the 200 and the 500 would not qualify to compete in the men’s division. Lia’s best times are not close to the slowest times of the more than 50 biological males accepted to compete in each of these events. Competing as a man Lia would be dead last but competing in the women’s division is favored to win the NCAA championships in both events. Will Thomas competed as a member of the University of Pennsylvania men’s swimming team for three years before switching to the women’s team for his senior year renamed Lia Thomas.

Lia is boldly looking to win at the NCAA championships in Atlanta and to qualify for the FINA world championships in July in Budapest, Hungary, and later for the 2024 summer Olympics in Paris. Lia seeks to displace such United States swimmers as our golden girl Katie Ledecky, seven-time Olympic champion and 11-time world champion. Lia has had the advantage to have matured from birth to adulthood with 30 to 40 times the male hormones and testosterone compared to a cisgender female. Lia has fueled and structured their body daily for more than 20 years in a way a natural biological female cannot match.

George Brunstad

Meredith