Trans swimmer Lia Thomas’ Olympic hopes are dashed after a losing legal battle

Thomas made history in 2022, becoming the first transgender woman to win an NCAA swimming championship.

Trans𝓈ℯ𝓍ual swimmer Lia Thomas lost a fight in court Wednesday testing a compelling prohibition on trans ladies contending in the most significant levels of ladies’ swimming, running her expectations of making the Mid year Olympics in Paris one month from now.

Three appointed authorities on the Court of Intervention for Game excused Thomas’ solicitation for mediation with the World Aquatics overseeing body.

“The board presumes that she needs remaining to challenge the arrangement and the functional necessities in the system of the current procedure,” the court expressed Wednesday in its decision.

Thomas, who rarely gives media interviews, told ABC News’ “Great Morning America” in 2022 that one of her deep rooted objectives was to contend in the Olympics.

With Wednesday’s decision set up, she will not be able to partake in the current month’s passing preliminaries to contend in the Olympics.

Under rules laid out in 2022, World Aquatics prohibited trans𝓈ℯ𝓍ual ladies who have had to deal with male adolescence from contending in ladies’ races. It additionally made an “open” class for which trans𝓈ℯ𝓍ual competitors would be qualified.

Thomas had asked the games court in Switzerland to upset the standards last year, it were invalid, unlawful and prejudicial to contend they. The standards were laid out a while after Thomas, then, at that point, an understudy at the College of Pennsylvania, turned into the first trans lady to come out on top for a NCAA swimming title in 2022.

“The CAS decision is deeply disappointing,” Thomas said in a statement through her attorney. “Blanket bans preventing trans women from competing are discriminatory and deprive us of valuable athletic opportunities that are central to our identities.”

“The CAS decision should be seen as a call to action to all trans women athletes to continue to fight for our dignity and human rights,” Thomas added.

World Aquatics said it welcomed the CAS decision in a case “we believe is a major step forward in our efforts to protect women’s sport.”

Thomas’ NCAA win drew international media attention, putting her at the center of an ongoing global debate over whether trans women should be allowed to compete in women’s sports. Her success also made her a frequent target of right-wing media.

Former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, who in recent years has become vocal critic of Thomas in conservative media, celebrated Thomas’ legal defeat on X.

“This is a victory for women and girls everywhere,” Gaines, who is also suing the NCAA for allowing Thomas to compete in the 2022 championships, wrote while also misgendering Thomas.

Athlete Ally, a nonprofit that advocates for the inclusion of LGBTQ in sports, condemned the ruling.

“By dismissing Lia Thomas’ legal challenge against World Aquatics, the CAS has denied her fundamental right to access an effective remedy for acts that violate her human rights,” Hudson Taylor, the founder and executive director of Athlete Ally, said in a statement. “This is a sad day for sports and for anyone who believes that trans athletes should have the opportunity for their experiences of discrimination to be heard and adjudicated like everyone else.”