The Debate Over Swimmer Lia Thomas at the NCAA Championships

ESPN Daily

ESPN

Sports

4.6 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 17 March 2022

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, a transgender woman, will compete in the NCAA championships. It’s the culmination of a season that has included records and conference championships, as well as backlash and outcry from those who believe she should not be allowed to compete on the women’s team. The NCAA had considered making changes to its policies around trans athletes ahead of this week’s NCAA Championships, but kept their current guidelines in place, clearing the path for Lia to swim for a national title. ESPN’s Katie Barnes joins us from the Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships in Atlanta with the very latest on Lia’s story, the potential public protests, as well as the ripple effect in state legislatures across the country, where Thomas has been invoked as an example for lawmakers seeking to restrict trans youth participation in sports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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0:00.0	ESPN Daily is presented by supercuts, the smarter, easier way to get a haircut.
0:06.7	It's not just any haircut, it's supercuts.
0:11.2	Katie Barnes, as part of your ongoing coverage of Penn Swimmer, Leah Thomas,
0:16.2	the transgender woman who is competing at the highest levels of college swimming.
0:21.0	You are in Atlanta right now for the women's swimming and diving championships, which are happening this week.
0:27.7	What is on the line for Leah there?
0:30.3	The biggest thing that's on the line is actual championships.
0:35.2	Katie Barnes is a feature writer for ESPN.
0:39.4	Leah is swimming in three individual events.
0:42.5	The 200-yard freestyle and the 500-yard freestyle
0:45.2	in which she is the top seat for both events,
0:48.3	and then the 100-yard freestyle, where she is the 10th seed.
0:52.4	Leah Thomas will be in the pool, possibly becoming the first transgender person to be a Division I national champion.
1:00.0	Last time we talked about Leah, she was swimming in the Ivy League championships.
1:07.0	Leah Thomas, a transgender athlete assigned male at birth, dominated this weekend's women's swimming Ivy League championships. Leah Thomas, a transgender athlete assigned male at birth, dominated this weekend's women's
1:12.9	swimming Ivy League championships, winning three individual events and smashing records.
1:19.7	Conference championships are important, but this is the moment that everyone was looking
1:24.4	ahead to when Leah Thomas first made headlines in December was whether or not she would become a national champion and whether or not she would break records held by some of our favorite Olympians like Katie Ladecki and Missy Franklin.
1:38.3	The story, of course, is about even more than just that, right? I mean, as big as those events are,
1:45.4	what is the larger significance of the timing of this event happening right now?
1:51.0	Well, we're in the middle of a broad cultural discussion
1:54.8	and, frankly, debate about what it means to be transgender in this country.
	...

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