A biological female member of the University of Pennsylvania women’s swimming team said she believes her transgender teammate Lia Thomas colluded with a Yale transgender athlete so she could lose to prove a point, according to a report.
Yalie Iszac Henig, who is transitioning from female to male, beat Thomas in both the women’s 100- and 400-yard freestyle races during an Ivy League swim meet on Jan. 8.
Henig was reportedly able to compete on the women’s team because she had yet to start testosterone treatment.
Thomas, who has been shattering women’s team records, has become a lightning rod as her story has gained national attention in recent months. She previously competed as a man for three seasons at UPenn.
Her biological female teammate told OutKick on condition of anonymity that she believes Thomas and Henig hatched a plan during the recent meet.
“Looking at [Lia’s] time, I don’t think she was trying,” she told the outlet. “I know they’re friends and I know they were talking before the meet. I think she let her win to prove the point that, ‘Oh see, a female-to-male beat me.’”
When asked if she believed the pair colluded, the swimmer said: “I do. I can’t say for sure, but I wouldn’t be shocked if I found out that was 100 percent true.”
Henig won the 100 freestyle race with a time of 49.57 seconds. Thomas touched the wall in 52.84 seconds – though she swam the 100 freestyle in 49.42 seconds during a November tri-meet with Princeton and Cornell, OutKick reported.
The anonymous swimmer also believes Thomas wasn’t giving her all in the 200-yard freestyle, which she won with a time of 1:48.73.
“I was on deck and said to a friend, ‘She’s literally not trying.’ You could just tell,” she told OutKick. “It was blatantly obvious. I was watching the 200 free and she was literally keeping pace with the other girls.
“She was No. 1 in the country at one point. These are definitely talented swimmers, but they’re not the caliber of being at the top in the country or anything like that,” she said.
“You can tell when someone is dying and they’re swimming slow,” the swimmer added. “You can also tell when someone is not trying and I could see [in the 200 freestyle] that Lia was not trying.”
The swimmer’s accusations come as the NCAA adopted new regulations for a sport-by-sport approach for transgender athletes, bringing the organization in line with the US and International Olympic Committees.
The new NCAA regulations require Thomas and transgender students-athletes to document testosterone levels, which must meet sport-specific levels, four weeks before their sport’s championship selections.
It is unclear when Thomas transitioned from male to female. As per NCAA rules, at least one year of testosterone suppression treatment is required to be able to compete as a woman.
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