Lia Thomas Registers Two Wins in First Meet Since NCAA Meeting
The University of Pennsylvania women’s team competed Saturday in its final Ivy League dual meet of the season as the Quakers traveled north to Harvard. The Crimson won by a final score of 187-113, but Lia Thomas did pick up two individual wins for Penn. Thomas won the 200 free in a swift 1:47.08, and she also placed first in the 100 free in 50.55. Thomas also provided a pair of 23-second relay splits on Penn’s 200 medley and 200 free relays.
Thomas was racing for the first time since an NCAA Board of Directors meeting that concluded with the organization announcing plans to adjust is transgender participation policies. The NCAA will now defer to the national governing bodies for each individual sport to determine the requirements for a transgender athlete to compete in women’s competition (in this case, USA Swimming), and tests of an athlete’s testosterone levels will be mandated four weeks prior to a championship event.
It is unclear if Thomas will meet any new requirements for measuring testosterone levels, but for the 2022 winter season, that restriction would only affect her participation in the NCAA Championships. She definitely will remain eligible to compete in dual meets and the Ivy League Championships because she met the NCAA’s previous rule about transgender participation, which only required an athlete to undergo one year of hormone-replacement therapy to be eligible.
Additionally, the NCAA’s release included a measure for “flexibility to allow for additional eligibility if a transgender student-athlete loses eligibility based on the policy change provided they meet the newly adopted standards,” so Thomas could still be exempted from the new policies which might otherwise rule her out of NCAAs.
Thomas owns the fastest times in the country this season in the 200 and 500 freestyle, and she is also among the top eight swimmers so far in the 1650 free.
View full results from the Harvard-Penn dual meet here.