Lia Thomas has just proved that transgender athletes do not always win

Note: This story has been updated with new quotes from NCAA National Champion Taylor Ruck.

Lia Thomas, the controversial college swimmer who won the NCAA DI National Champion Trophy in the 500-freestyle Thursday, finished a distant fifth in the 200-yard free Friday night.

The winner, two-time Canadian Olympic Olympian Taylor Ruck of Stanford, set a pool record with her winning time of 1:41:12. In fact, California swimmers were dominant in the finals.

Thomas, who won earlier on Friday with a time of 1: 42.09, finished more than two seconds behind the jerk and left the entire race, including the starting blocks. She broke up in a tie with Riley Gaines of the University of Kentucky at 1:43:40.

At the halfway point in the final, Thomas disappeared in seventh place, then passed the USC Laticia Transom. In the last 50 yards, the Austin, Texas native has even drawn with Gaines, and their pattern has been to slowly build and move up in the final laps. Not this time; She was never able to catch the back and calf swim Isabel Ivey, who dominated the first 150 yards of the course.

How Swimming world David Rieder noted: “Thomas’ 100-yard split of 50.34 was actually much faster than his half-time of 50.87 in advance. are almost a second slower on each of these splits in the final.

The result is more proof of what Outsports reported in 2019: Trans athletes do not always win.

Protesters Boo Thomas

Heavy rain and thunderstorms for most of the day were demonstrated by anti-Trans activists, as well as inclusion advocates, outside the McAuley Aquatics Center. But an engaged and loud group of protesters sat on the stands opposite the pool, and bid farewell as Thomas was introduced before the race, and again when the University of Pennsylvania Senior stood on the podium in 5th place.

When Thomas left the pool deck, there was no mob of supporters as she climbed over the water center alone. Then she laughed and waved to her friend, Schuyler Bailar, the first trans athlete to compete in the DI. Bailar swam for the 2015 Harvard men’s team.

Stanford celebrates

In contrast to her reaction to Thomas, people cheered loudly for the jerk and the other cisgender women who finished behind her. A large group of Stanford teammates celebrated the jerk as she climbed out of the pool. This victory puts her in a tie with former Stanford star Simone Manuel, the fourth fastest swimmer in NCAA history.

Ruck’s winning time was a fraction of a second faster than its closest rival, Ivey, who was a tight second in the heat. From Gainesville, Fla. born was also a close second to Thomas in the Friday preliminaries, just half a second behind her.

This is Ruck’s first individual NCAA title. How Swimming World reported last year, Ruck has struggled with life outside the pool, struggling with eating disorders, a not uncommon problem that plagues student-athletes.

“It’s certainly been a journey since then,” Ruck told reporters at a late-night news conference Friday. “Many downs more than ups. But I think the last few years have been just very difficult for everyone, and everyone just has their own way and journey through. Mine happened with an eating disorder. I’m happy to say I’m on the other Side of that fight are and I hope that when someone else goes through the same thing, it gets better.

Back at Stanford after the pandemic made a lot of sense to Ruck, she told me, especially since it had been her dream school since she was a girl. Not just because of the great weather, but because of the people there, on the occasion she saw a long time ago on a family roadtrip.

“We used to go up the coast of Arizona,” she said. “I grew up in Arizona, so we went every year to where I was born, Kelowna, to Canada. We stopped at Stanford this one year, and I just remember walking along the pool in the water center and all the girls. like exercise.I’m probably like 10, and I do not know, it’s just like anchored in me, like, that’s where I wanted to go.Just the awe I felt at that moment.

I asked Ruck her thoughts about Thomas. She said she had heard “the siblings” about beer, but was only concentrating on her own performance and apparently did not consider it unfair to compete with Thomas. “Competition is competition,” said Ruck, who added that she enjoys the challenge that Thomas represents. “I was excited to run against someone who is going so fast.”

What’s next for Thomas?

Since she did not finish first, Thomas was not required to speak to the news on Friday. Michael Mahoney, Penn’s spokesman, told me that Thomas had decided not to speak to reporters “until it’s over”, which will be here in Atlanta tomorrow.

That’s when she and trans man Iszac Henig compete head-to-head in the 100 freestyle, the first time in NCAA history that two transgender student-athletes compete in the same championship race.