Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has proclaimed Olympic silver medalist and Florida native Emma Weyant to be the true winner of the NCAA 500-yard freestyle championship despite being beaten by transgender swimmer Lia Thomas last week.
Weyant, who came in second during the March 17 competition at the NCAA championships held at Georgia Tech’s McAuley Aquatic Center, received hearty congratulations from Gov. DeSantis during a Tuesday press conference WFLA reported.
“She earned that. We need to honor that appropriately,” DeSantis told the media.
“The NCAA is basically takings efforts to destroy women’s athletics,” DeSantis added. “They’re trying to undermine the integrity of the competition. They’re crowning somebody else the women’s champion, and we think that’s wrong.”
Florida is one of a handful of states that have passed laws meant to protect women’s sports and barring men who “identify” as women from competing against natural-born females.
“We thought it was very important that girls and young women athletes in the state of Florida had the ability to work hard, to realize their dreams and to compete fairly,” the gov. said of Florida’s law. “Whether it’s in swimming, it’s in track and field, you name it.”
Weyant earned a time of 4:34.99 to Thomas’ 4:33.24 to come in second in the 500 freestyle last week.
Despite the NCAA’s claim that Lia Thomas was the winner, though, Weyant became celebrated on social media as the real winner of the event, with many social media users saying that they “identify” Weyant as the winner.
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