A University of Pennsylvania female swimmer is speaking out about the treatment of her team and how it has been neglected by the athletic department. She spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
Apparently, it was known for about two years that William Thomas would eventually be swimming as Lia Thomas with the females. Yet, the Ivy League university’s athletic department neglected the female swimmers, allegedly never stopping by the pool to talk to the team.
“We did not hear a single thing from the athletic department until just a couple weeks ago. Not even for the last two years, when they knew it was going to happen. They’ve known for more than two years now,” the Penn swimmer told the Washington Examiner. “It was September 2019 when we learned of this. The athletic department did not talk to us once. They did not ask how we feel. They did not try and say anything or do anything to help us. They never even stopped by the pool once. They did not care, and they didn’t even try to help.”
The school’s administrators did offer counseling sessions, so to speak, and said they would listen to the team if any swimmers were emotionally distraught. However, it was described more like a consolation session, because even though the swimmers could talk to them, there was nothing the administrators could do to address any problems.
“I know some girls went and talked about their feelings about the whole thing with one of the administrators. And she was kind … it was more of a therapy session more than anything,” the Penn swimmer told me. “They discussed how they were feeling and the frustrations. They definitely listened to the swimmers, but it was more of a ‘There’s nothing I can do’ or anything helpful. They were there just to make them feel heard. That’s it.”
Additionally, the school has taken a pretty firm stance when it comes to Lia swimming. It definitely appears to have prioritized Lia and her well-being over that of the other female swimmers.
“Lia swimming was a non-negotiable,” the swimmer said. “The school made it seem like they were trying to say, ‘Don’t even bother to come to us with your concerns or anything like that because we’re not going to help you.’ Or, they don’t really care because ‘this is going to happen one way or the other.’”
This has exasperated many of the swimmers.
“Yeah, it’s definitely really stressful. There’s a lot going on. And it definitely weighs on my mind a lot because it’s definitely hard to overcome the feeling of feeling completely overlooked, as if the NCAA just does not care about us at all. And nobody cares about how this is affecting us at all,” she said.
“It just seems like if you say anything, everyone is just going to attack you and call you transphobic, and it’s not even true,” she said. “We just want to have what we were promised by joining the swim team, which is fair competition and equal opportunities. It’s been really frustrating because we all agree, and I have yet to meet anyone or talk to anyone who thinks what is going on is OK. But yet somehow, these are the rules and allowed.”
Asked if Daily Mail reports that the team has “set aside their differences” were true, she said, “not at all.”
“They were just taking pictures of us at a training trip. They had not talked to us at all. I think they just said that because we were all training together,” she said. “But we can train together for two years and can still have differences.”
“We have to train together. I think they’re just taking the picture of us. We had to go on the training trip,” she said. “It was mandatory, and we have to train together every day. There’s no way to get around that.”
When asked if it could have been framed as propaganda to make it seem like things were better, the Penn swimmer agreed.
“‘Yeah,” she said, “That’s what it seems like, because they didn’t talk to any of us.”
She added that there is still a lot of tension and animosity.
“When Lia swims, we are all silent,” she said. “I’d say most people don’t clap.”
She also said that swimming is therapeutic for her and most swimmers on the team. They enjoy the sport and look at practice as a way to decompress from the rigors of everyday life and the stresses of classes. Yet, despite all the controversy, she said all of her fellow swimmers do the best they can to tune out the noise — even if they are hurting on the inside.
“There’s a lot of tension behind closed doors. We kind of want to leave it out of swimming. We all love swimming, and it’s kind of our place to go to clear our mind. It’s supposed to be therapeutic when we swim. We feel better,” she said. “I almost always feel better after practice than I do before. It’s a therapeutic thing to exercise and push yourself. A lot of us try to keep it out of our mind at practice and leave the negative feelings away. It can definitely be hard. There’s not really tension on deck, but we all really talk about it, a lot on our free time.”
Penn champions itself as a beacon of female empowerment and equality. The university routinely mentions women “shattering the glass ceiling.” Yet, in the case of the Penn female swimmers, the Ivy League university is forcing them to live under one.
“It’s so backwards because they are legitimately discriminating against women,” she said.
