"Swimming on the men's team as a man without coming out caused lot of distress" - When Lia Thomas opened up on transition

Lia Thomas, the transgender swimmer who became the first openly trans woman to win an NCAA Division I title, has always kept her life fairly private. However, in December 2021, the American spoke to SwimSwam about her transition journey, and the mental health issues she faced before she began to identify as a woman.

Thomas opened up about how she began her transition in 2019 — a year after she found out she was trans. The swimmer revealed that in May 2019, she began hormone replacement therapy, which is a combination of estrogen and testosterone blockers.

The American went on to detail that when she initially realized that she was trans, there was a lot of uncertainty regarding her swimming career. She said that in her initial year in college, she opted to choose for the men's team, which in turn led to a lot of mental anguish for her.

“There was a lot of uncertainty. I didn't know what I would be able to do, if I would be able to keep swimming, and so I decided to swim out the 2018-2019 year on the men's team as a man without coming out. That caused a lot of distress to me, I was struggling, my mental health was not very good. It was a lot of unease about basically just feeling trapped in my body like it didn't align", she said (01:00).

Thomas said that she finally made the decision to come out as trans when she realized that she wasn't able to properly focus on the other aspects of her life as much as she wanted to.

“I wasn't able to focus on swimming or school or friendships as much as I wanted to, and so I decided it was time to come out and begin my transition and start everything. So I came out then to my entire team early in the fall of 2019", Lia Thomas added.

Despite officially transitioning to a woman, Thomas was forced to keep swimming on the men's team in the 2019-2020 season, as rules at the time stipulated that trans women receive a minimum of 12 months of hormone replacement therapy before they are allowed to compete in the women's category.

The swimmer described the experience as “awkward,” saying:

“I loved swimming and wanting to keep swimming and so that 2019-2020 school year I was in a very awkward phase where I was on the men's team but transitioning to a woman basically as as a quick side.”

Check out Lia Thomas' interview below:

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Lia Thomas to pursue legal action against World Aquatics

After Lia Thomas began competition as a woman, she faced a lot of backlash when she won the NCAA Division I title in the 500 yards event in 2022. Just three months after she raced to victory, World Aquatics, the official international swimming body, announced a new rule for transgender athletes.

The rules stipulated that no person who had gone through male puberty would be allowed to compete in women's categories, essentially banning Thomas from making a career as a swimmer in the women's category.

Now, more than a year after the WA’s introduction of the rule, Thomas is pursuing legal action against the organization in a bid to compete again as per, The Telegraph. The swimmer has roped in Canadian law firm Tyr, and will be represented by attorney Carlos Sayao.

Sayoa, a former competitive swimmer himself, previously represented Olympic champion Caster Semenya in her case against World Athletics. While Lia Thomas and her team originally brought the case forward in September last year, a ruling is unlikely to take place before the 2024 Olympics, meaning that the 1999-born athlete may not be able to compete in Paris this year.