Lia is a transgender swimmer who is now a member of the University of Pennsylvania swim team. She is the first swimmer to compete at the championship level after having a gender transformation. In the autumn of 2019, she joined the Penn swimming team. Lia Thomas is a transgender swimmer who is now a member of the University of Pennsylvania swim team. She competed as a guy called Will Thomas for three years at Penn before joining a women’s squad.
In November 2019, she set collegiate swimming records in the 200 and 500-yard freestyles, as well as an elite performance in the 1650 freestyle. Her 500 free time is 4:34.06, her 200 free time is 1:41.93, and her 1650 free time is 15:59.71. When she participated in the ladies’ races at the Zippy Invitational, Thomas set two national records. In March 2022, she will compete in the national championship competition in Atlanta.
She finished second in the 100-yard freestyle against Iszac Henig, a junior at Yale, on January 8, 2022, with a time of 49.57 seconds. Henig is undergoing a male-to-female transition. Thomas finished in fifth place with a timing of 52.84 seconds. Thomas, on the other hand, won the first of her four races by just two seconds.
Lia Thomas’s age
Lia was born in the year 1999 as a male. She is now 22 years old. She is originally from Austin, Texas. Her name was Will Thomas before she transitioned, and she changed her name to Lia Thomas after that. She started swimming at the age of five. She is the first swimmer to compete at the championship level after having a gender transformation.
When did Lia make the decision to transition?
Lia initially recognized she was trans in the summer of 2018. She discussed how she came to grips with her gender identification and the transition process on the SwimSwan Podcast.
She said,
“I initially learned I was trans the summer before in 2018, there was a lot of confusion, I didn’t sure what I’d be able to do, whether I’d be able to keep swimming,” she says.
“As a result, I opted to swim out the 2018-2019 year as a guy, without coming out, which gave me a lot of pain,” she said.
Furthermore, she started her transition in May of 2019, beginning with hormone replacement treatment. She then used testosterone suppressants and estrogen pills for at least a year to drop her testosterone level to that of an ordinary girl. After that, in the autumn of 2019, she joined the Penn swimming team.
Lia Thomas’s net worth
Lia’s swimming career is his main source of revenue. She is an encouragement to younger women who want to be swimmers. She is believed to have a net worth of roughly $1 million as of November 2023.
Thomas’ teammates are having issues with her.
Despite setting three school records and two national marks, Thomas has been saddled with significant debt due to her status as a transgender athlete. Some of her teammates, supporters, and conservative critics have questioned her performance. The two swimmers even complained to the media anonymously about a “lack of impartiality.” She was born with masculine gender. Transgender activists and Thomas’ institution, on the other hand, have been encouraging her to compete in women’s swimming. Thomas has met all of the NCAA requirements to participate on the women’s team.
