Paula Scanlan has welcomed the news that her former teammate Lia Thomas will not be allowed to compete in the Olympics and claims she should receive an apology for being ‘forced to strip’ with the transgender athlete ’18 times a week’ .
It was announced on Wednesday afternoon that the 25-year-old swimmer would not be allowed to compete in the Olympics after losing her legal battle to have rules banning her possible participation overturned.
Scanlan took to social media shortly after the verdict was revealed to demand an apology, writing on Twitter (X): “Okay, but will someone apologize for making us undress with him 18 times a week?”
Thomas first made headlines in March 2022, when she became the first trans athlete to win the NCAA women’s college swimming title, the most prestigious university title in the United States.
But it wasn’t long before World Aquatics (WA) introduced a rule change that would prevent anyone who had gone through “any part of male puberty” from competing in the women’s category.
Paula Scanlan (pictured left) welcomed the news that her former teammate Lia Thomas (pictured right) will not be allowed to compete in the Olympic Games.
Instead, they created an “open” category for which transgender athletes would be eligible. However, the decision did not sit well with Thomas, who asked the Court of Arbitration for Sport to annul the rules approved in 2022.
Thomas, who swam for the Pennsylvania men’s team for three seasons before starting hormone replacement therapy in early 2019, said the rules were invalid, illegal and discriminatory.
However, the three-judge CAS panel dismissed Thomas’ request for arbitration with World Aquatics’ governing body and dismissed the case on a “technicality.”
They said Thomas “simply did not have the right to commit to eligibility to compete in WA competitions, such as the Olympics or world championships” because he was no longer part of US swimming.
As a result, the decision ended Thomas’s hopes of competing in the Olympics, something the 25-year-old called “deeply disappointing” in a statement provided by her legal team.
The statement shared via AP read: “Broad bans preventing trans women from competing are discriminatory and deprive us of valuable sporting opportunities that are fundamental to our identities.”
Thomas is understood to have said the decision made by the Court of Arbitration for Sport should be seen as a call to action for trans women to “fight for our dignity and human rights”.
While the president and CEO of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), Sarah Kate Ellis, said in a statement that Thomas deserves the opportunity to participate in his sport and follow his dream.
Thomas made headlines in March 2022 when she became the first trans athlete to win the NCAA women’s collegiate swimming title, the most prestigious university title in the US.
“World Aquatics continues to spread misinformation about transgender people as a distorted way to ‘protect women,’ Ellis added. “Transgender women are women and all athletes who want to play and follow the rules should have the opportunity to do so.”
However, one person who welcomed the news was Thomas’ former teammate Scanlan. Scanlan took to Twitter (X) to make his feelings known after the verdict was announced.
Scanlan, who used to swim at the University of Pennsylvania alongside Thomas, retweeted the New York Post story announcing that the transgender athlete would not be able to compete in the Olympics.
The post, which has been viewed 3.9 million times and liked 47,000 times, read: “Okay but is someone going to apologize for making us undress with him 18 times a week?”
This is not the first time Scanlan has spoken out against Thomas’ involvement in women’s sport, having previously lashed out at the Democratic Party for putting “trans rights” ahead of women’s fears.
While testifying before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government last week, Scanlan raised the issue of transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.
She urged lawmakers to put women’s physical safety first when making decisions about women-only spaces such as locker rooms, having previously confessed to having “nightmares for weeks” after sharing a locker room with trans athletes.
Scanlan, an alleged victim of sexual assault in a bathroom when she was 16, shared that Thomas’ presence brought up previous trauma from her adolescence.
Speaking to the New York Post, Scanlan said: “In general, bathrooms were a place I felt really uncomfortable in. I would just relive the situation I went through when I was 16.
“I was at my locker and all of a sudden I heard a male voice and I just jumped. “I thought, ‘Oh my God, someone came in here.’ It’s incredibly vulnerable. For weeks I had nightmares about men being there while we were getting dressed.
Thomas sparked a wave of controversy after switching to the women’s team in 2021. She set seven UPenn women’s team records (five singles) and won three individual events at the Ivy League Championships in February 2022.
Thomas defended her place in women’s swimming during an interview with Sports Illustrated last year. She began by saying, “I’m a woman, like everyone else on the team.” I’ve always seen myself as just a swimmer. It’s what I’ve done for so long; It’s what I love.’
However, her critics have even included those from the transgender community, with Olympic champion Caitlyn Jenner not agreeing with Thomas being allowed to compete as a woman.
Scanlan says Thomas’ presence in women’s spaces made her and others uncomfortable.
‘I have been consistent in the way I have approached transgender athletes and it depends on the sport. Every sport is different,” she told Fox News earlier this year. “Obviously, we saw that Lia Thomas had gone through male puberty and had a larger cardiovascular system, it just wasn’t fair.”
Although Thomas’ college career is over, Scanlan still believes it is an important issue given that there will be similar cases in the future with amateur and professional sports.
“If there had been a guy on my team in high school, I would have quit and literally had nothing,” she told The Post. ‘He would never have gotten into a good university. My whole life would have been derailed.
“If even one girl is discouraged from competing in sports because of this, we will have failed,” Scanlan added. “It’s so important to give girls these same opportunities.”