The Daily Caller’s Kay Smythe said Sunday that transgender swimmer Lia Thomas’ nomination for the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s “Woman of the Year” award is a “slap in the face” to women.
University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) nominated Thomas, a biological male, for the award after winning the 500 event at the NCAA Women’s Championships by 1.75 seconds in March. The athlete is one of 577 graduating athletes competing in women’s competitions nominated for the award.
“I think this is just another slap in the face for women, and I’m quoting Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, who was photographed with Lia Thomas recently, when I say that. I think that this is just a further insult to biological women who have spent their entire lives training to be the best in their class, only to have a biological male take that over. I don’t want to come across as anti-trans, that is not the case at all,” Smythe said.
“I think we just need a definitive separation between what is a woman and what is a trans-woman, and I do not think it is ever going to be acceptable for a trans-woman to compete with biological women because it just doesn’t stay a competition, it is completely unfair … it kind of breaks my heart,” she continued. “I worry about the future of young girls in this country when I see things like this because it destroys a lot of motivation.”
University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines first coined the term in a Friday tweet, adding the NCAA made the award “worthless.” (RELATED: One Spot Taken Away’: Swimmer Slams NCAA Rules Allowing Lia Thomas To Compete Against Biological Women)
“Being the real girl in that photo and also University of Kentucky’s nominee for NCAA WOTY, this is yet another slap in the face to women,” Gaines said. “First a female national title and now nominated for the pinnacle award in collegiate athletics. The @NCAA has made this award worthless.”
Being the real girl in that photo and also University of Kentucky’s nominee for NCAA WOTY, this is yet another slap in the face to women. First a female national title and now nominated for the pinnacle award in collegiate athletics. The @NCAA has made this award worthless. https://t.co/MRCieqbltd
— Riley Gaines (@RileyGaines) July 16, 2022
Dow Jones MarketWatch columnist Ellis Henican accused Smythe and host Katrina Szish of having no compassion for “young, struggling, decent” transgender athletes and using them as a political tool.
“Treating them with such hostility is completely unkind, it’s un-Christian and both of you need to back away from it,” Jones said. “Let me dig a little deeper in this story. For instance, trying to upset people with this particular angle. Do you know how many people have been nominated for a ‘Woman of the Year’ award in the NCAA? 240. 239 of them were born female, by the way, so the notion of trying to rev up the viewers and create some hostility toward these people and trying to treat them as other, that we can look down on them and treat poorly is unfair and completely unwarranted in this circumstance.”
Smythe argued Henican will never understand the experience women athletes have competing against men, then said the nomination is a “nail in the coffin” for girls. She said women are not being mean to stand up against the unfair advantage Thomas and other biological males have in women’s competitions.
“It is really just a gut punch. This is something these women have worked for their entire lives, something they have wanted their entire lives, and it could get taken away by a biological male,” she said. “That is just so unfair.”
FINA, the governing body for international swimming, banned nearly all biological males from women’s competitions in June. The new requirement only permits male athletes to transition and experience no puberty symptoms before the age of 12.
Henican argued the NCAA is handling this issue responsibly and accused the political right of abusing transgender athletes. He then claimed science allows for an individual to change their gender.
“You’re ignoring the question, Ellis,” Smythe interjected. “No one’s saying we’re trying to be unkind, like that’s the issue here. You’re just not answering the question, again.”