A long time USA Swimming official has resigned in protest over University of Pennsylvania transgender student-athlete, Lia Thomas who competes on the women’s swimming team.
Lia Thomas, who was a three-year member of the men’s squad at Penn, joined the women’s team this year after she transitioned to a woman and completed the one year of testosterone suppression treatments, following NCAA guidelines.
Her addition to the women’s team has sparked outrage after she smashed records and qualified for the NCAA championships in March despite being an average swimmer when she competed against men.
In one race against women, she beat her teammate Anna Sofia Kalandadze in the 1,6500-yard freestyle by 38 seconds at the Zippy Invitational this month.
Cynthia Millen said “I don’t mean to be critical of Lia – whatever’s going on, Lia’s a child of God, a precious person – but bodies swim against bodies. That’s a male body against females. And that the male body can never change. That male body will always be a male body. I told my fellow officials that I can no longer participate in a sport that allows biological men to compete against women. Everything fair about swimming is being destroyed,’ Millen penned in her letter. If Lia came on my deck as a referee, I would pull the coach aside and say, ”Lia can swim, but Lia can swim exhibition or a time trial. Lia cannot compete against those women because that’s not fair. People are saying, ‘Why don’t the swimmers just leave?’ Well, those are 19-, 20-year-old kids,’ said Millen. ‘It’s up to us. We’re the ones who are supposed to be providing this fair competition. We should be the ones who should be saying, wait a minute. I’ve talked to some other officials, and while they say, “Yeah, this is ridiculous,” I think a lot of people feel like they can’t do anything about it. But you’ve got to make a stand sometimes. If enough people walk off the deck, or if enough referees say no, it will change. It’s wrong. But this is not being inclusive. This is being deceitful”
Millen resigned on December 17 as she prepared to officiate at the US Paralympics Swimming National Championship in North Carolina, saying it dawned on her that she couldn’t ‘support this.’