What to know about transgender swimmer Lia Thomas

Sport

What to know about transgender swimmer Lia Thomas

2025-03-20 09:04 Last Updated At：09:11

Lia Thomas is a former University of Pennsylvania swimmer who drew harsh criticism for her success as the first openly transgender athlete to win a Division I championship in 2022, the year she graduated.

Thomas is now in the news again. The White House announced Wednesday the Trump administration has suspended approximately $175 million in federal funding for Penn over the swimmer in the wake of President Donald Trump's executive order designed to ban transgender athletes from competing in girls and women's sports.

Penn becomes one of the first examples of an institution facing financial consequences.

Trump’s executive order signed last month allows federal agencies to withhold funding if an entity does not follow the administration’s interpretation of Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools and colleges.

That order considers “sex” as the gender assigned to someone at birth. The NCAA changed its participation policy the day after Trump's order came down, limiting participation in women’s sports to athletes assigned as female at birth.

Previously, the NCAA deferred to an individual sport’s national governing organization, international federation or prior established International Olympic Committee criteria to determine a transgender athlete's eligibility.

Thomas sought an arbitration hearing with the governing body World Aquatics in her attempt to clear the way to being able to compete in elite women's races on the world stage, but last June judges ruled she didn't have standing to challenge the rules that were approved in 2022.

The Switzerland-based Court of Arbitration for Sport panel featuring three judges dismissed Thomas’ request to overturn the rules she claimed were invalid, unlawful and discriminatory.

World Aquatics banned transgender women who have been through male puberty from competing in women’s races. The swimming governing body also introduced an “open” category for which transgender athletes would be eligible.

In its argument to the Swiss court, World Aquatics said Thomas wasn't a member of its member federation USA Swimming when the legal case was started. She also had not entered female events “for the purpose of qualification or selection” for World Aquatics competitions, such as the Olympics or world championships.

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Kirsty Coventry elected IOC president and is first woman, first African to lead global Olympic body

2025-03-20 23:57 Last Updated At：03-21 00:01

COSTA NAVARINO, Greece (AP) — Kirsty Coventry has been elected president of the International Olympic Committee and become the first woman and first African to get perhaps the biggest job in global sports.

The Zimbabwe sports minister and two-time Olympic swimming gold medalist got a stunning first-round win in the seven-candidate contest after voting by 97 IOC member on Thursday.

She gets an eight-year mandate into 2033 aged just 41 — youthful by the historical standards of the IOC.

It was the most open and hard-to-call IOC presidential election in decades with no clear front-runner before the vote. Many predicted an absolute majority could take several rounds of votes but she got the exact total of 49 needed.

Coventry’s win also was a victory for outgoing IOC president Thomas Bach, who has long been seen as promoting her as his successor. He did not use his right to vote.

“I will make all of you very, very proud and hopefully extremely confident in the decision you have taken,” Coventry said in her acceptance speech. “Now we have got some work together.”

Walking to the podium, she was congratulated and kissed on both cheeks by Juan Antonio Samaranch, her expected closest rival who got 28 votes. Third-placed Sebastian Coe got just eight.

Also in the race were four presidents of sports governing bodies: Track and field's Sebastian Coe, skiing's Johan Eliasch, cycling’s David Lappartient, and gymnastics' Morinari Watanabe. Also contending was Prince Feisal al Hussein of Jordan.

Coventry will formally replace her mentor Bach on June 23 — officially Olympic Day — as the 10th IOC president in its 131-year history. Bach reached the maximum 12 years in office.

Key challenges for the 41-year-old Coventry will be steering the Olympic movement through political and sporting issues toward the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles, including engaging in diplomacy with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Coventry’s IOC will also need to find a host for the 2036 Summer Games which could go to India or the Middle East.

The strongest candidates in a five-month campaign with tightly controlled rules drafted by the Bach-led IOC seemed to be Coventry — who gave birth to her second child — IOC vice president Samaranch and Coe.

Samaranch tried to follow his father, also Juan Antonio Samaranch, who was the IOC’s seventh president from 1980 to 2001.

Coe aimed to add to a remarkable career of Olympic triumphs: A two-time Olympic gold medalist in the 1,500 meters, he led a bidding team for the 2012 London Olympics, then worked for the next seven years to head the organizing team of those widely praised Games.

It has been a stellar week for Bach, who greeted Coventry and shared warm smiles after her acceptance speech.

Bach was feted on Wednesday in an emotional start to the IOC annual meeting, getting lavish praise and the title of honorary president for life.

His hands-on executive-style presidency will deliver over a financially secure IOC, on track to earn more than $8 billion in revenue through the 2028 LA Olympics, and with a slate of future hosts through 2034: in Italy, the United States, France, Australia and finally the U.S. again, when the Winter Games return to Salt Lake City.

A signature Bach policy also has been gender parity, with equal quotas of men and women athletes at the 2024 Paris Olympics and giving a better balance of female members of the IOC and the executive board he chairs, which now has seven women among its 15 members, including Coventry.

Her win on Thursday will only add to Bach's legacy for promoting women.

Coventry won back-to-back titles in 200-meters backstroke at the 2004 Athens Olympics and Beijing four years later. She joined the IOC in 2013, almost one year after a disputed athlete election at the London Olympics. Her place among the four athletes elected was eventually awarded after Court of Arbitration for Sport rulings against two opponents.

The next president can oversee the IOC making a statement choice for its host for the 2036 Summer Games.

“There is one and one only,” Samaranch said on Wednesday when asked about challenges ahead. “We must concentrate (on) successful and relevant Olympic Games. The rest comes with success in the Games.”

The voters in the exclusive invited club of IOC members include royal family members, former lawmakers and diplomats, business leaders, sports officials and Olympic athletes. Even an Oscar-winning actress, Michelle Yeoh.

Members voted without hearing further presentations from the candidates in an election that swung on a discreet network of friendships and alliances largely forged out of sight.

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