Lia Thomas’ Ex-Teammate Wants Apology for Shared Locker Room

(AP)

Paula Scanlan, a one-time teammate of Lia Thomas, is saying that she deserves an apology for being “forced to undress” in the same locker room as the transgender swimmer “18 times a week” while they were swimmers at the University of Pennsylvania.

Her comments on X came after news broke that Thomas, 25, lost her case against World Aquatics at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), in a decision that will keep her from having a chance at competing at the Paris Olympics, which start on July 26, reports The Daily Mail.

Thomas was the first transgender NCAA champion in Division I history, but after that, World Aquatics voted to restrict transgender athletes from participating in elite women’s events. Scanlan, in her post, referred to Thomas as “him” while asking if anyone would apologize for Thomas’ presence in locker rooms.

Scanlan made her comment while reposting an article from The New York Post that announced that the transgender swimmer would not be competing at the Paris Olympics.

Scanlan’s X post has been viewed 12 million times as of Friday.

She has spoken out several times against Thomas competing in women’s swimming and has lashed out at Democrats for putting “trans rights” ahead of the fears of women.

Last week, she testified before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government, urging lawmakers to put women’s safety first when making decisions about spaces such as locker rooms.

She told The New York Post that she was a victim of a sexual assault in a bathroom when she was 16 years old and that Thomas’ presence brought up trauma from that experience.

Scanlan, meanwhile, said she believes the topic of transgender athletics is important, but has said that she believes it depends on the sport on how the matter is treated.

“We saw with Lia Thomas she had gone through male puberty, bigger cardiovascular system,” Scanlan told Fox News last year. “It just wasn’t fair.”

She also told The Post that “if there had been a man on my team in high school, I would have quit, and I would literally have nothing…I would never have gotten into a good college. My entire life would have been derailed.”

Scanlan added that “if even one girl is discouraged in competing in sports” over including transgender athletes, “we’ve failed. It’s so important to give girls these same opportunities.”

According to the World Aquatics rule change, anyone who has undergone “any part of male puberty” is prohibited from competing in women’s sports, while creating an “open” category for transgender athletes.

Thomas swam for Pennsylvania’s men’s team for three seasons. However, she began hormone replacement therapy in 2019 and has claimed that the WA rules are discriminatory and invalid.

The CAS panel said it was throwing out her appeal on a “technicality” and that she was “simply not entitled to engage with eligibility to compete in WA competitions such as the Olympics or world championships” because she was no longer a part of the U.S. swimming program.

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