Concerned parents of female swimmers on the University of Pennsylvania swim team are once again banging on the doors of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to revise their rules on transgender inclusion in sports to prevent biological female athletes from being "bumped out" of competition.
This is not the first time parents are speaking out on how Lia Thomas, a biological male who now identifies as female, wiped out the biologically female competition during several swimming events.
In December, parents of 10 biologically female swimmers at the University of Pennsylvania women's swim team sent a letter to the NCAA, the Ivy League and University of Pennsylvania officials, in which they cried out how "At stake here is the integrity of women's sports." Now, parents are calling upon the NCAA to revise their rules on transgender inclusion in collegiate sports.
"It starts with the NCAA. I think the NCAA needs to change its policies, and find a way to include transgender women without trampling all over biological women," two parents of a UPenn swimmer on the women's team told Fox News.
Sue Feldman, another UPenn swim team parent, said that it was "obviously an issue" and that the NCAA should "handle it better in the future because right now they're not handling it so well."
The issue has once again come into light just a few weeks after Thomas once again dominated in the sport this past weekend. At a swim meet on Saturday, UPenn hosted Dartmouth College and Yale University, where Thomas, who is now a senior, won the 200-yard freestyle, 500-yard freestyle, and finished fifth in the 100-yard freestyle. This is after the transgender athlete broke women's records in December.
According to Breitbart, the Ivy League continued to support Thomas, affirming its "unwavering commitment" to providing an "inclusive environment" for the transgender athlete and those like Thomas. The University of Pennsylvania issued a similar statement of support.
Meanwhile, more parents are speaking out against Thomas and the inclusion of transgender athletes in women's sports. A parent of a Dartmouth swimmer lamented that it was "not fair to girls" who have been swimming since they were six years old to compete against "someone who had a chance at winning the Ivy League Championship." The parent added, "That dream is shattered."
A parent of another UPenn swimmer said that their daughter was directly impacted by Thomas being on the women's team. She lamented how her daughter once had a dream of breaking records "that may not be possible now." She also expressed how her daughter is " angry that she sees her friends being bumped from relays or a roster that travels to a meet."
Thomas, on the other hand, has finally experienced a loss to another transgender swimmer, a separate Breitbart report reveals. Thomas, a biological male, went up against Iszac Henig, is a woman transitioning to become a man. The loss occurred during UPenn's tri-meet with Yale and Dartmouth. Henig was described as "easily [beating] out [her] opponents in the women's 100-yard freestyle with a time of 49.57 seconds," a competition in which Thomas finished only fifth.
Henig, who has been competing with the Yale swim team since 2018, reportedly had her breasts removed but delayed hormone treatments to compete in women's swimming. The trans athlete said, "I value my contributions to the team and recognize that my boyhood doesn't hinge on whether there's more or less testosterone running through my veins."
