Three-time Olympic Gold Medal swimmer Nancy Hogshead spoke out against allowing transgender women to compete against natural-born women, saying it “isn’t fair,” and claimed the NCAA wins by UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas is a perfect example of how unfair it is.
Speaking to TMZ, Hogshead rejected Lia Thomas’ claim that “Trans women are not a threat to women’s sport.”
Thomas made the claim in an interview this week with Good Morning America, where the NCAA women’s swimming champion spoke about transitioning from male to female and sports.
EXCLUSIVE: "Trans people don't transition for athletics. We transition to be happy and authentic and our true selves."
Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas speaks out to @JujuChangABC about backlash and future plans to compete. https://t.co/UFQOgMNBLj pic.twitter.com/FJcmyEChi9
— Good Morning America (@GMA) May 31, 2022
However, Hogshead feels that allowing athletes born as men to compete against natural-born women is a major threat to women’s sports.
“After somebody has been through male puberty, you cannot roll that back. So, it isn’t fair,” the U.S. Olympic champion swimmer told TMZ.
“We’re hoping that we can get sports governing bodies and legislatures and others to care more about fairness than any other conclusion,” Hogshead added, referencing her work with the women’s sports advocacy group, Champion Women.
Hogshead noted that she does not care if Thomas wants to go through life as a woman, but sports is not the place to do that.
“I affirm who [Lia] wants to be for all of her life,” Hogshead said. “Whether it’s employment, the classroom, or anyplace else. But when it comes to sports, sports is not based on identity. It is based on biology. That is why we have the women’s sports category.”
“If sport is not based on sex segregation, and if gender identity equals sex discrimination, we might lose the right as woman athletes to be able to have separate sex sports,” she explained.
“I am not going to allow this generation of women to have to be gracious losers to somebody that has a biological advantage that you can’t train for, you can’t eat better, you can’t find better coaching,” Hogshead added.
“You can’t outrun biology,” Hogshead exclaimed.
The 1984 Olympian is not the only Olympic athlete to blast the University of Pennsylvania and the NCAA for allowing Thomas to compete as a woman. In April, Aussie gold medal winner Emma McKeon also said it “isn’t fair” for the trans swimmer to compete against natural-born women.
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