What trans athlete Lia Thomas teaches us about fairness | Opinion

For the last few weeks I’ve been reading about University of Pennsylvania trans swimmer Lia Thomas, most recently about her breaking records at the Ivy League swim meet. Her story has interested my Penn friends on both sides of the political spectrum and raised issues of science, gender, sports, and fairness.

One of the most notable aspects of the Thomas story, from my perspective, is that swimmers and parents have been cowed into silence. Sixteen anonymous members of the Penn women’s swim team and their families sent a letter to the university and the Ivy League, claiming that Thomas holds an unfair advantage over competition in the women’s category.

The gist of their comments: Thomas’ participation wasn’t fair. Because she had gone through puberty as a male, her frame and muscle tone made her too good for the women swimmers she was competing against.

The athletes and their families seem to have no issues with Iszak Henig, the Yale swimmer who is transitioning from female to male but still swimming on the women’s team even though he now refers to himself using male pronouns. Henig chose to hold off on hormone replacements so he could continue to swim on Yale’s women’s team.

Henig wasn’t standing at the top of the podium, however. Thomas was. And that seems to be more of the issue — not that Lia Thomas is trans but that she is good.

Ten years ago, trans basketball player Gabrielle Ludwig joined the Mission College basketball team in California. She was 6-foot-6 and 230 pounds. But because she was 50 years old and returning to college, no one predicted the end of women’s sports.

Navi Huskey is a nonbinary person playing basketball on the women’s team at Long Beach City College, also in California, and they are dominating. But at a junior college, Huskey is only 6 feet tall. They are a very good basketball player at their level because of their skill more than their size. They don’t stand out.

Lia Thomas stands out. She’s tall — 6-foot-3 or so — with long arms and legs, which give her a noticeable advantage in the pool. She is a favorite going into the NCAA championships in the 200- and 500-yard freestyle events.

From a strictly competitive standpoint, I understand why the second-place finisher and the fourth-place finisher might be ticked off: One was denied a title, the other was denied a place on the podium.

But while Thomas’ times set pool records that may one day warrant an asterisk, her times don’t change anyone else’s times. A personal best is still a personal best.

“Her times don’t change anyone else’s times. A personal best is still a personal best.”

In recent Olympic figure skating, we watched athletes with no chance at medals who were ecstatic in the kiss-and-cry because they had done their best. We’ve seen Olympics swimming races for years in which swimmers crushed their personal bests but were still far behind Michael Phelps or Katie Ledecky, who were just bigger, stronger, and faster.

Isn’t that the point in individual sports: doing your best? In golf, when you break 80 for the first time, is your feat negated because your playing partner beat you by 5 strokes? No. You’re still buying the beers.

For many people, the trans athlete phenomenon is still new and confusing. Everyone has to come to grips with it in their own way.

No one is deliberately going through surgery, hormone changes, and potential ridicule and ostracism in order to win a few first-place titles. But in those rare cases in individual sports when one competitor towers above the others, might it not be a bit healthier for athletes to worry less about the competition and a little more about their own improvement?

» READ MORE: When we talk about Penn swimmer Lia Thomas, we’re listening to the wrong voices | Opinion

Sports are inherently unfair. Some colleges have better coaching, better facilities, and bigger budgets than others. If Haverford played football against Alabama, it would not be pretty. And many athletes, no matter how hard they work out and perfect their skills, just didn’t win the genetic lottery, which will always leave them behind someone who is bigger, stronger, or faster.

Lia Thomas is following the rules set up by her league. The mere fact that she’s better than everyone else may anger the women she’s beating, and their parents, but she’s not cheating. Does she have advantages? Yes. So do many others.

Lots of athletes have heart rates, wing spans, fast-twitch muscle fibers, and hormone levels that give them competitive edges. Only one person in each race can be the fastest. Everyone else needs to be satisfied with doing their best.

Howard Gensler is a Penn alum and sports fan, and a former writer and editor at the Philadelphia Daily News and Inquirer. @DNTattle