Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas units Ivy document in 200-yard freestyle at Ivy championships

Her subsequent closest competitor, Harvard’s Samantha Shelton, completed in 1:45.82, adopted via Harvard’s Molly Hamlin in 3rd. After successful, Thomas shook palms with each.

The win got here an afternoon after Thomas received the 500-yard freestyle in 4 mins and 37.32 seconds, beating her subsequent closest competitor via 7.5 seconds.

The time used to be a pool document for Blodgett Pool at Harvard however used to be a couple of seconds slower than her time on the Zippy Invitational in Ohio in December, by which she set the quickest instances of the NCAA season within the 200-yard and 500-yard freestyles. With the ones instances, she certified to compete at NCAA Nationals in March in Atlanta.

She may be anticipated to compete in both the 100-yard freestyle or the 1,650-yard freestyle on Saturday.

A fifth-year senior who prior to now competed for the Penn males’s swimming crew, Thomas started transitioning genders about 2 and a part years in the past.

Her dominance within the pool has raised questions in regards to the NCAA’s insurance policies towards transgender girls athletes and the right kind stability between inclusion and equity.

For over a decade, the NCAA has required transgender girls to be on testosterone suppression remedy for a 12 months sooner than they’re allowed to compete at the girls’s crew.

In January, the NCAA mentioned it could alternate its regulations to compare each and every game’s nationwide governing frame, but if USA Swimming launched a suite of stricter pointers, the NCAA mentioned it could now not institute the ones regulations till after the season, paving the best way for Thomas to compete within the nationwide championships.