Lia Thomas

Lia Catherine Thomas was born in May 1999 and grew up in Austin, Texas, where she began swimming at the age of five and later competed for Westlake High School, finishing sixth in the state high school championships in boys’ events. She enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania in 2017, joining the men’s swim team and immediately making her mark as a freshman with a 1,000-yard freestyle time of 8:57.55, the sixth-fastest national men’s mark that season, along with top-100 national times in the 500 and 1,650-yard freestyle.

As a sophomore in 2019, Thomas finished second in the men’s 500, 1,000, and 1,650-yard freestyle at the Ivy League championships and posted the top UPenn men’s team times in those three events. She began hormone replacement therapy in May 2019, came out as a trans woman during her junior year, and, after a pause in competition during the COVID-19 pandemic, joined the women’s team for the 2021–2022 season once she met NCAA hormone therapy requirements. In March 2022, she made history by winning the women’s 500-yard freestyle at the NCAA Division I championships in 4:33.24, becoming the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I national title in any sport.

Her victory drew intense national scrutiny and made her a central figure in public debate over transgender women in women’s sports, covered by outlets from The Washington Post to Sports Illustrated, which called her “the most controversial athlete in America.” She earned support from peers including Olympic silver medalists Brooke Forde and Erica Sullivan, while facing opposition from others in the sport. In June 2022, FINA voted to bar transgender athletes from elite women’s swimming, ending her plan to compete at the 2024 U.S. Olympic trials. Thomas, who has spoken about the reward of living authentically, graduated from Penn in 2022 with plans to attend law school.