Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas will not be able to compete in the Olympics after losing her legal battle to overturn World Aquatics’ rule change.
The 25-year-old American swimmer made history as the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I national championship by taking the women’s 500-yard freestyle event in 2022.
However, World Aquatics later implemented a rule banning anyone who had “been through male puberty” from competing in women’s races, which affected Thomas as she had started hormone replacement therapy in 2019.
Lia Thomas contested the rule when it was introduced in 2022.
The new regulation was introduced after Thomas’ NCAA victory over Olympic silver medalist Emma Weyant in the women’s 500-yard freestyle in 2022.
According to World Aquatics’ Competition Regulations, which were first unveiled in 2022 and updated on January 1, 2024, section 5.5 outlines the “Eligibility for the Women’s Category.”
Section 5.5.2 specifies that transgender women athletes can compete if they “can establish to World Aquatics’s comfortable satisfaction that they have not experienced any part of male puberty beyond Tanner Stage 2 or before age 12, whichever is later.”
It further states: “Specifically, the athlete must produce evidence establishing that: They have complete androgen insensitivity and therefore could not experience male puberty; or They are androgen sensitive but had male puberty suppressed beginning at Tanner Stage 2 or before age 12, whichever is later, and they have since continuously maintained their testosterone levels in serum (or plasma) below 2.5 nmol/L.”
Thomas contested the new rule, launching a legal case with the Court of Arbitration for Sport, accusing the change of being discriminatory and unlawful. On June 12, the ruling of a panel of three judges was released.
The rule was implemented after Thomas won the NCAA’s women’s 500m freestyle. The three judges from the Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed Thomas’ request for arbitration.
They stated that she was “simply not entitled to engage with eligibility to compete in WA competitions” because at the time she launched the legal case, she was not a member of its member federation USA Swimming.
The panel detailed that she hadn’t competed in specific female “qualification or selection” events for World Aquatics competitions, such as world championships or the Olympics. Her participation in the NCAA and swimming for the University of Pennsylvania was outside the World Aquatics competitive system.
The panel concluded that Thomas “lacks standing to challenge the policy and the operational requirements in the framework of the present proceeding,” as reported by AP News.
Thomas responded to the ruling in a statement provided by her legal team, as quoted by Athlete Ally.
Thomas called the ruling “deeply disappointing”.
The statement reads: “The CAS decision is deeply disappointing. Blanket bans preventing trans women from competing are discriminatory and deprive us of valuable athletic opportunities that are central to our identities. The CAS decision should be seen as a call to action to all trans women athletes to continue to fight for our dignity and human rights.”
Founder and Executive Director at Athlete Ally, Hudson Taylor, added: “For decades, the International Olympic Committee and almost all Olympic International Federations have required athletes to arbitrate disputes at CAS. By dismissing Lia Thomas’ legal challenge against World Aquatics, the CAS has denied her fundamental right to access an effective remedy for acts that violate her human rights. This is a sad day for sports and for anyone who believes that trans athletes should have the opportunity for their experiences of discrimination to be heard and adjudicated like everyone else.”
