The Republican governor has signed a proclamation declaring a female-born Florida swimmer the real winner of last week's 500-yard freestyle women's swimming competition.
Governor Ron DeSantis is speaking the truth. The Republican leader from Florida has signed a proclamation that declares Sarasota native and Olympic silver medalist Emma Weyant as the real winner of 500-yard freestyle event of the Women's Swimming and Diving Championships, which was held last week. Weyant, who is a freshman at the University of Virginia, came in right behind male-born transgender athlete Lia Thomas with a time of 4:34.99.
Thomas was declared the winner, but this did not sit well with Gov. DeSantis. According to Faithwire, the Republican governor of Florida said during a press conference on Tuesday that he would sign a proclamation declaring Weyant as the true winner of the NCAA swimming championships.
Gov. DeSantis decried how the NCAA is "allowing basically men to compete in women's athletics" and underscored how Weyant had actually come close to defying Thomas. He described the female-born Weyant as "the No. 1 woman who finished" who was also from Sarasota, Florida, who "won the silver medal" and had been "an absolute superstar her whole career."
"[Weyant] trains...to compete at that level is very, very difficult. And you don't just roll out of bed and do it," Gov. DeSantis remarked. "That takes grit, that takes determination, and she's been an absolute superstar and she had the fastest time of any woman in college athletics."
Gov. DeSantis underscored how Weyant had the "fastest time of any woman in college athletics" and denounced the NCAA for "basically taking efforts to destroy women's athletics" by allowing male-born, female-identifying transgender athletes such as Thomas compete against women.
"They're trying to undermine the integrity of the competition, crowning somebody else the women's champion, and we think that's wrong," Gov. DeSantis declared.
Just as recent as three years ago, Thomas had been competing as a male on the men's team. Because Thomas had been consistently breaking women's records for identifying as a woman and competing in women's sports, many critics took to social media to highlight the achievements of the female-born athletes that came close to beating Thomas, including Weyant.
Former Press Secretary Angela Morabito took to Twitter to congratulate Weyant, writing "Second is the new first" and adding a hashtag "#savewomenssports."
Newsmax contributor and special counsel at the Thomas More Society Jenna Ellis on Twitter called Weyant "the actual first place winner." Similarly, Republican Rep. Nick Freitas of Virginia called Weyant the "REAL winner of the NCAA Division I women's 500-yard freestyle."
An unnamed Twitter user who is a 21 year Navy veteran also took to social media to urge people to "make Emma Weyant famous!" He argued, "She is the fastest FEMALE swimmer in the nation! The title that she rightfully won was taken from her by a male."
Last week, Swimming World Magazine's Editor-in-Chief John Lohn argued before the competition that "Thomas' male-puberty advantage has not been mitigated." He added that if Thomas wins the NCAA title, which he did, it would "deny the runner up of a title that should be a crowning moment in a career," in this case, Weyant's. He argued further that even if the trans athlete would finish fourth place, he would be "robbing the fifth-place finisher of her proper placement." The point being driven is that "NCAA has turned its back on biological females."
