In her Feb. 25 Friday Opinion column, “Let’s not overlook the other women in the pool,” Megan McArdle hinted that Lia Thomas, a transgender collegiate swimmer, somehow has an unfair advantage over her teammates and competitors. Ms. McArdle also hinted that more people should be questioning why Ms. Thomas should be allowed to compete as a woman. These comments are driven partially by Ms. Thomas’s 200-yard freestyle victory at Harvard in January (1:47.08). Ms. Thomas also won the Ivy League championship 200-yard free in February with a time of 1:43.12.
I’d like to remind everyone about Katie Ledecky, who regularly outswam the men on her team at practices, and whose 200-yard freestyle personal best is 1:40.36, set in 2017 at the NCAA championships. Missy Franklin swam the 200-yard free at the 2015 Division I NCAA championships in 1:39.10, and Simone Manuel came in second at 1:41.45. 2021 NCAA Division I women’s 200 freestyle times are all between about 1:42 and 1:45.
Given that Ms. Thomas’s swim times are in the same ballpark as those of her other (presumably cisgender) female competitors, I think we need to face the fact that the kerfuffle over Ms. Thomas isn’t about “biological advantage,” nor is it about “fairness.” It seems to be about transphobia, pure and simple.
Beth Lee-De Amici, Crofton
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