Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas has been secretly mounting a legal challenge against World Aquatics, formerly known as FINA, challenging a new rule that bars most trans athletes from competing in high-level women’s sporting competitions including the Olympics.
Thomas’ lawyer, Carlos Sayao, a partner at Canadian law firm Tyr, told NBC News that Thomas is asking the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland to overturn a 2022 World Aquatics rule stipulating that trans athletes can only compete in women’s swimming if they began their gender transitions before the age of 12.
As CBN News reported, Thomas made headlines after winning first place in the NCAA Div. 1 Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships in March 2022.
Thomas previously tried to compete in men’s swimming for three years as a man at the University of Pennsylvania before becoming transgender.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport, or CAS, confirmed the legal challenge in a late January statement.
“Ms Thomas accepts that fair competition is a legitimate sporting objective and that some regulation of transgender women in swimming is appropriate,” the statement reads. “However, Ms Thomas submits that the Challenged Provisions are invalid and unlawful as they discriminate against her contrary to the Olympic Charter,
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