Ivy League trans athletes are unfairly gaming the system

It’s all going swimmingly in Ivy League women’s watersports. In a shock result at last week’s meet at the University of Pennsylvania, Lia Thomas, of the home team, who has transitioned from male to female, lost the 100- and 400-yard freestyle events to Yale’s Iszac Henig, who is transitioning from female to male.

Are they gaming the system? 

The National Collegiate Athletic Association sets the rules for college sports. Its guidelines, written in 2010, don’t demand that trans athletes put their assets on the line and undergo gender-reassignment surgery. They say that a man can compete in women’s sports after “completing one calendar year of testosterone suppression treatment.” 

Lia Thomas started her college swim career on Penn’s men’s team but has followed the science as the NCAA defines it. She may not have surgically streamlined her profile in the water, but her testosterone levels are low enough for her to swim with the ladies. And my, how she swims.