Culture
Posted by Charlie Kirk Staff - 3.18.22

Spectator Hollers at Trans-Swimmer, Says What Growing Number of Americans Think

Spectator Hollers at Trans-Swimmer, Says What Growing Number of Americans Think

Culture
Posted by Charlie Kirk Staff - 3.18.22

A spectator yelled out something that has been on the minds of a growing number of Americans before University of Pennsylvania transgender swimmer Lia Thomas destroyed ‘her’ competition ahead of an event on Thursday.

Moments before the 500Y race began, a spectator yelled, “CHEATER!” according to a video clip posted online.

Thomas beat the second-place swimmer by nearly three seconds, which is considered a huge margin in the event.

According to another video clip, the audience did not cheer for Thomas when ‘she’ finished; they waited to cheer for the second and third place swimmers after they finished.

Twitter exploded at another lopsided victory for Thomas, who swam as a male — his birth gender — until 2019 when he/she began the transgender journey.

“Round of applause for Emma Weyant, the UVA swimmer who placed second in the 500y freestyle tonight, behind Lia Thomas. Second is the new first,” wrote former Department of Education press secretary Angela Morabito, while another user tweeted, “Shout out to Tylor Mathieu that would have been in the top 8 tonight in the 500 free at @NCAA Swimming Championships if Lia Thomas didn’t take a spot away from her.”

“Women (and men) are committing a slow and purposeful murder of women’s sports,” added NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck.

“I have looked at this Lia Thomas situation objectively, with an open-mind and really read as much as possible on it. It will never make sense that Penn and the NCAA let Thomas compete with women. It just never will. And it serves as an incredibly scary precedent,” wrote local Pittsburgh radio show host Colin Dunlap.

Writer Kimberly Ross noted a similar sentiment, tweeting, “Lia Thomas is a male. He won not because his skills improved, but because he’s stronger and faster than the actual female competitors. Period. It’s not a positive. It is NOT progress. It’s a slap in the face to women and girls, and it pisses me off. I don’t accept it.”

“It’s sad how female athletes won’t speak out against the inclusion of Lia Thomas. They’re either so afraid to get canceled or they don’t think males have a genuine physical advantage over females,” wrote journalist Ian Miles Cheong.

Parents of actual female swimmers also were upset.

“It’s just not right,” the father of an Auburn University swimmer told Fox News. “It’s taking opportunity away from females that have worked very, very hard for a long, long time, even before college, to get in this position.”

The mother of the same swimmer said neither she nor her husband “support a biological male swimming in the women’s championship meet.”

“It is an unfair advantage,” she added.

“They asked how he felt about winning, when really, how did the rest of the women feel about having the stress of dealing with this, knowing they have to swim against him?” the Auburn father said, in reference to Thomas.

“I think everybody’s gotta be civil about it,” he continued. “I call him Will Thomas. He’s a human, we should respect that and what he wants to do with his life, but this isn’t the place to do it.”

“I have not met one parent that feels differently than we feel,” the Auburn swimmer’s mother told Fox News. “I have not met one person that supports it.”

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