Lia (formerly Will) Thomas — the former college swimmer who so perfectly illustrated the injustice of allowing males to compete against females when he displaced female athletes in the NCAA swim championships in 2022 — is as committed as ever to competing against women.
In 2022, World Aquatics, the international governing body for swimming, changed its policy on transgender-identifying athletes to bar those who have undergone “any part of male puberty” from the female category. In its decision, it cited evidence showing that males who identify as females retain their physical advantages, even if they have suppressed their testosterone levels.
Now, Thomas is surreptitiously suing World Aquatics. The Telegraph revealed, “Thomas has asked the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland to overturn rules brought in by World Aquatics”:
Telegraph Sport can reveal that Thomas has hired top Canadian law firm Tyr, the website of which describes its practitioners as “fearless advocates” who have been involved in “high-stakes and precedent-setting cases”.
Those brought before CAS — even ones with a clear public-interest element — are controversially not publicised and are heard behind closed doors unless the parties involved consent otherwise.
Telegraph Sport has learnt Thomas first went to the court in September, since when World Aquatics has applied to have the case thrown out on the basis [he] is not currently impacted by its rules because [he] has not submitted [himself] to the jurisdiction of USA Swimming, its recognised member association.
Thomas’s case is absurd. The differences between males and females are obvious and demonstrable, as has been discussed many times. The case could be thrown out on common-sense grounds alone.