(Lea Thomas, the picture above shows before the transgender, the picture below shows after the transgender)
Lea Thomas is a 22-year-old swimmer in the University of Pennsylvania in the United States, and is also an transgender person. Last weekend, she broke two American women's swimming records at the invitational tournament at Akron in Ohio. Before transgender, Leah participated in the competition as a member of the school’s men’s team for three years, and 2019 was her last competition.
On December 3, in the 500-yard freestyle, Lea won the game 14 seconds ahead of the second place and broke the American women's swimming record; on December 5, in the 1650-yard freestyle, she won the game 38 seconds ahead of the second place with 15 minutes, 59 seconds, 71. On December 4, she broke the record of 200 yards freestyle again with a time of 7 seconds ahead of second place. Last month, she participated in the women's swimming competition between Princeton, Cornell and Pennsylvania ; she broke the University of Pennsylvania team's 200-meter and 500-meter freestyle records.
(Lea Thomas and her teammates)
National College Athletic Association stipulates that any trans athlete (gender changed to female) can participate in women's competitions as long as they complete a year of testosterone suppression treatment.
This is the first season for trans athlete Lea as a woman to participate. Some views argue that Leah is not fair in the women’s competition and refuses to admit that she is a woman. Criticism believes that transgender female athletes still have significant advantages over other female athletes, because these transgender individuals still retain their height and weight advantages as men after completing testosterone suppression treatment.
Leah Thomas responded, "Being a trans person does not affect my athletic ability, and being able to continue swimming has given me a lot of rewards." Next month, she will participate in the Women's Championship at Atlanta and is likely to win medals.
Wuhan Morning Post Intern Reporter Yuan Jiabei