One of Leah Thomas’ former teammates says she deserves an apology for “forcing” her to disrobe in front of her “18 times a week” while she was competing as a collegiate swimmer at the University of Pennsylvania.
Paula Scanlan, a former University of Pennsylvania swimmer and women’s sports advocate, appeared on X to caption a New York Post article about Thomas’ unsuccessful lawsuit against World Aquatics for blocking her from competing in the Paris Olympics.
Scanlan’s caption made it clear that denying Thomas an Olympic spot wasn’t enough.
“Okay, but is anyone going to apologize for forcing me to get undressed with him 18 times a week?” Scanlan wrote.
Okay, but is anyone going to apologize for forcing me to get undressed with him 18 times a week? https://t.co/KKLq1Akelv
— Paula Scanlan (@PaulaYScanlan) June 14, 2024
Thomas tried to sue World Aquatics after the International Swimming Federation banned adolescent male swimmers from top women’s swimming competitions.
University of Pennsylvania swimmer Leah Thomas stands on the starting line during the 100m freestyle heats at the National Collegiate Swimming and Diving Championships at the Macquarie Aquatic Center in Atlanta, Georgia on March 19, 2022. (Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
The decision, handed down by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), means Thomas will be barred from competing on the U.S. team or in any elite competitions governed by World Aquatics.
Swimmers who competed with Thomas at the NCAA and were forced to practice with him in the same locker room want some kind of compensation for the humiliation they were forced to accept as college swimmers. But the NCAA is not under the jurisdiction of World Aquatics, whose ruling has no impact on college sports’ governing body.
But Thomas’ loss at CAS is no small thing: The widespread international backlash against transgender acceptance could also have an impact on a lawsuit filed by former female college swimmers who claim the NCAA forced them to compete with men and share the same locker rooms as men.
University of Pennsylvania swimmer Leah Thomas reflects after finishing fifth in the 200-meter freestyle final at the National Collegiate Swimming and Diving Championships at the Macquarie Aquatic Center in Atlanta, Georgia on March 18, 2022. (Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Scanlan was sexually assaulted in a bathroom when she was 16, but the trauma of having to undress in front of a man was particularly damaging to her. New York Post.
Thomas, who competed at the University of Pennsylvania for three years, has called FINA’s transgender ban “discriminatory,” basing much of his argument that he had no competitive advantage over women on the fact that he began taking hormone replacement therapy in 2019.
However, World Aquatics based its eligibility for transgender athletes on whether they had undergone male puberty, rather than whether they had undergone hormone therapy.
