Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas can’t compete in Olympics after losing legal fight against sport’s governing body
Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas can’t compete in the Olympics after she lost her legal battle to have the rules barring her participation overturned.
The 25-year-old rose to prominence after she won the women’s NCAA college swimming title back in March 2022 – the US’ highest college title.
However, during the summer of that year swimming’s governing body, World Aquatics (WA), introduced rule changes that would bar anyone who has undergone “any part of male puberty” from competing in the female category.
Thomas previously swam for Pennsylvania’s men’s team for three seasons before starting hormone replacement therapy in early 2019 – so was affected by the rule change.
In response to the ruling, she launched a legal challenge, asking the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to overturn the rules because they were, she argued, invalid, unlawful and discriminatory.
However, her case was thrown out on a technicality because Thomas was “simply not entitled to engage with eligibility to compete in WA competitions such as the Olympics or world championships” as she was no longer a member of US swimming.
The decision ends any remaining hopes Thomas had of competing in the Olympics.
The three-judge panel added: “The panel concludes that she lacks standing to challenge the policy and the operational requirements in the framework of the present proceeding.”
Thomas won the highest US college title in 2022 before the rule change. Pic: AP
Lia Thomas in January 2022. Pic: AP
World Aquatics said it welcomed the CAS decision and said: “We believe is a major step forward in our efforts to protect women’s sport.”
USA swimming had previously granted her request for “self-identity verification” as part of its policy on athlete inclusion.
But the judges said USA Swimming had no authority to “modify such scope of application” of the world governing body’s rules.
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Thomas was represented at CAS by Toronto-based Tyr, the legal firm that has represented two-time Olympic champion runner Caster Semenya.
Semenya is excluded from running in her specialist 800 metre event by World Athletics rules on athletes with differences in sex development who have elevated levels of testosterone.
Swimming’s policy on transgender athletes was followed by other top-tier Olympic sports who also excluded from women’s events people who have potentially gained lasting physical advantages from going through male puberty.
The CAS judges declined World Aquatics request for Thomas to pay its legal costs and other expenses incurred in the case.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
A farmer who fell from a greenhouse roof during an anti-immigrant raid at a licensed cannabis facility in California this week has died of his injuries.
Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first person to die as a result of Donald Trump’s Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) raids.
His niece, Yesenia Duran, posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe to say her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to his wife and daughter in Mexico.
The United Food Workers said Mr Alanis had worked on the farm for 10 years.
“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorise American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” the union said in a recent statement on X.
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it executed criminal search warrants at Glass House Farms facilities on Thursday.
Mr Alanis called family to say he was hiding and possibly fleeing agents before he fell around 30ft (9m) from the roof and broke his neck, according to information from family, hospital and government sources.
Agents arrested 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally and identified at least 10 immigrant children on the sites, the DHS said in a statement.
Mr Alanis was not among them, the agency said.
“This man was not in and has not been in CBP (Customs and Border Protection) or ICE custody,” DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said.
“Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30ft. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.”
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Four US citizens were arrested during the incident for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers”, the DHS said, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.
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In a statement, Glass House, a licensed Cannabis grower, said immigration agents had valid warrants. It said workers were detained and it is helping provide them with legal representation.
“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” it added.
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