by an anonymous teammate. The New York Times,
The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal have
also written about her.
The attention directed at Thomas has widened to the
rest of her team, which has become bitterly divided.
Mike Schnur, Penn’s men’s and women’s coach, has
received a litany of hateful emails. During a training trip
early this year in Florida, the school’s swimmers were
asked by coaches not to wear their school gear lest they
make themselves targets. The university’s social media
handlers have turned off comments on some posts that
mention their star. Even USA Swimming has fielded
calls from parents of youth swimmers, worried the next
Lia Thomas might take over their pool.
“I’m a woman, just like anybody else on the team,”
Thomas says. “I’ve always viewed myself as just a swim-
mer. It’s what I’ve done for so long; it’s what I love.” She’s
not thinking about wins or records, she insists. “I get
into the water every day and do my best.”
This season left Thomas feeling both liberated and
besieged. While she hopes her presence on the start-
ing block helps other young trans athletes realize their
possibilities, Thomas has walled herself off. Her onlypublic comments this season have been on video with
the swimming-news website SwimSwam and in exten-
sive January sit-downs with Sports Illustr ated.
(During her two meetings with SI, Thomas brought
Schuyler Bailar—a former Harvard swimmer and the
first-known openly transgender D-I athlete—and asked
that they be allowed to simultaneously record the conver-
sations.) Her words are clipped, her pauses a calculation
of potential reactions her comments might elicit.
Thomas has been threatened and called so many names
online that she turned off some direct messaging on her
Instagram. She avoids mentions of her name online,
especially comment sections. She told her parents not to
engage in the fight. She asked her friends to stand down.
She won’t criticize teammates she knows are rooting
against her. “I don’t look into the negativity and the
hate,” she says. “I am here to swim.”
Every day this season felt like a challenge to her
humanity. Part of her wanted people to know her journeyL
I
A
T
H
O
M
A
S
LONELY AT THE TOP
Her blazing times and huge victory margins this
season only made Thomas (top, at the Ivy League
championships) a greater target for scrutiny.