The NCAA Board of Governors has announced changes to its transgender athlete policy due to the controversy over trans UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas.
NCAA President Mark Emmert claimed that the new policy “provides consistency and further strengthens the relationship between college sports and the U.S. Olympics,” according to Swimming World.
The new college policy will adhere to international athletic standards when any particular sport has adopted them on a sport-to-sport basis, the NCAA says.
Like the Olympics, the updated NCAA policy calls for transgender participation for each sport to be determined by the policy for the national governing body of that sport, subject to ongoing review and recommendation by the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports to the Board of Governors. If there is no NGB policy for a sport, that sport’s international federation policy would be followed. If there is no international federation policy, previously established IOC policy criteria would be followed.
The NCAA did not say whether or not the new changes would affect Thomas and the University of Pennsylvania swim team.
Thomas has caused no end of controversy after claiming to “transition” to a woman as the swimming competition season started. Thomas has repeatedly smashed women’s swimming records since joining the school’s swim team.
Thomas set a new 500 freestyle Ivy League record this season and the next day crushed the female record in the 200 freestyle, setting an all-time record that will likely be hard for natural-born female swimmers to beat.
But Thomas was also heard bragging about how easy it has been to beat his female opponents.
Thomas recently lost to another trans swimmer, but recent evidence has suggested that Thomas lost on purpose.
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