Sanity briefly broke out in female college athletics on Monday when the NCAA announced their pared-down list of candidates eligible for the organization’s Woman of the Year award, and UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas — a biological male identifying as a female — was no longer eligible for the award. The male Thomas had been among 547 candidates for the female award when UPenn nominated him earlier this month.
Thomas’ name was not among the 151 conference nominees released on Monday.
The Ivy League’s candidate for Woman of the Year will instead be Columbia University fencer Sylvie Binder. Binder was the NCAA Women’s Foil Champion in 2019 and placed third overall this year. Binder has already been honored with the 2022 Women’s Connie S. Maniatty Award as Columbia’s top senior student-athlete.
Thomas’ main claim to fame was winning an NCAA swimming championship as a biological male competing against females. Prior to beginning his “transition” to female in 2019, Thomas had competed on UPenn’s men’s swimming team as a middle-of-the-pack competitor.
OutKick Sports called it a “major upset” that Thomas didn’t go on to win the award.
“This week, conferences were asked to declare a Woman of the Year and the Ivy League did the unthinkable and bypassed Thomas for — a biological woman, first-team All-American fencer Sylvie Binder from Columbia University,” wrote OutKick’s Joe Kinsey.
The NCAA’s Woman of the Year award is largely based on 1972’s Title IX law, which was intended to stop sex-based discrimination in the classroom, and by extension, athletics.
“The NCAA Woman of the Year program is rooted in Title IX and has recognized graduating female college athletes for excellence in academics, athletics, community service and leadership since its inception in 1991,” reads the award’s mission statement.
Apparently, giving the award to a man who competed unfairly against women was a bridge too far for even the “woke” Ivy League.
Many sports analysts — as well as people with common sense — believed that Thomas had an unfair advantage when competing against females, a sentiment shared by many of the parents of UPenn swimmers who asked both UPenn and the Ivy League to intervene in December, and not allow Thomas to compete against actual females.
“At stake here is the integrity of women’s sports,” the parents wrote. “The precedent being set — one in which women do not have a protected and equitable space to compete — is a direct threat to female athletes in every sport. What are the boundaries? How is this in line with the NCAA’s commitment to providing a fair environment for student-athletes?”
Thomas’ teammates also struggled with him being allowed to compete against females. In a letter they penned to both UPenn and the Ivy League, they let their feelings be known.
“We fully support Lia Thomas in her decision to affirm her gender identity and to transition from a man to a woman. Lia has every right to live her life authentically,” read the letter, which was sent anonymously due to fear of retribution by the university or transgender activists.
“However, we also recognize that when it comes to sports competition, that the biology of sex is a separate issue from someone’s gender identity. Biologically, Lia holds an unfair advantage over competition in the women’s category, as evidenced by her rankings that have bounced from #462 as a male to #1 as a female.”
Female tennis legend Martina Navratilova — an LGBT activist — also believes that it was unfair for Thomas to compete against women.
“I don’t agree that she should be allowed to swim,” Navratilova said recently. “This is not a fair fight. If I was a female swimmer … I really don’t have a chance to be competing against Lia.”
In an interview with ESPN in May, Thomas showed that he didn’t care that he may be taking opportunities from actual women.
“It’s no different than a cis woman taking a spot on a travel team or a scholarship,” Thomas said. “Cis” is a term used by the “woke” to describe a person whose gender identify corresponds to their sex assigned at birth.
“It’s a part of athletics, where people are competing against each other. It’s not taking away opportunities from cis women, really. Trans women are women, so it’s still a woman who is getting that scholarship or that opportunity,” Thomas explained.
Delusional people such as Thomas are often very good at finding ways to justify themselves.
In an age where being a woman is considered by many to be an attitude rather than a biological fact, it’s good to see that the Ivy League and the NCAA haven’t yet — to use a swimming analogy — jumped completely off the deep end.
