Read the complete write-up of Lia Thomas net worth, age, height, family, parents, swimmer as well as other information you need to know.
Introduction
Lia Thomas is an American swimmer. In 2021 and 2022, her athletic achievements as a trans woman became a point of media debate, with Sports Illustrated calling Thomas “the most controversial athlete in America” and CNN calling her “the face of the debate on transgender women in sports”.
Biography
| Name | Lia Thomas |
| Net Worth | $200,000 |
| Occupation | Swimmer, Student |
| Height | 1.93m |
| Age | 23 years |
Lia Catherine Thomas was born in 1999 (age 23 years) in Austin, Texas, He is the daughter of American parents in Texas and has an older brother. Thomas began swimming when she was five years old. She is a student at the University of Pennsylvania.
Thomas was sixth in the state high school swimming championships, competing for Westlake High School. Both she and her brother have studied at the University of Pennsylvania. Thomas finished second in the men’s 500, 1,000, and 1,650 freestyle at the Ivy League championships as a sophomore in 2019. Thomas began to question her gender identity near the end of her time at Westlake High School.
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Lia Thomas first realized she was transgender in the summer of 2018. Thomas swam on the men’s team in 2018–2019, started transitioning using hormone replacement therapy in May 2019, and came out as transgender to her team in the fall of 2019. She swam for the men’s team in the 2019–2020 academic year as a junior while undergoing hormone therapy and swam on the women’s team in 2021 after taking a year off school and competitive swimming due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Transgender status and swimming
In 2021, predominantly conservative media started widely covering Lia Thomas. In January 2022, notable sports personalities and the mainstream media began expressing opinions and reporting about her. The Washington Post wrote that Thomas was “shattering records”.
In December 2021, the USA Swimming official Cynthia Millen resigned after 30 years and stressed that she hoped others in the sport will agree that Lia Thomas has an unfair advantage over cisgender competitors. Sixteen anonymous members of the University of Pennsylvania women’s swimming team sent a letter to the university and Ivy League officials requesting them to not take legal action against the NCAA’s new transgender athlete policy that could prevent Thomas from competing in the NCAA championships, alleging that Thomas ranked number 462 as a male swimmer, but now ranks number 1 as a female swimmer.
The University of Pennsylvania, multiple organizations affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and the Ivy League issued statements supporting Thomas. Another group of swimmers from Thomas’s swim team made a separate statement supporting her competing on the women’s team. The anonymous letter also led to another letter in response, organized by Schuyler Bailar and signed by more than 300 current and former collegiate swimmers, stating their “support for Lia Thomas, and all transgender college athletes, who deserve to be able to participate in safe and welcoming athletic environments”.
Brooke Forde, an Olympic silver medalist, four-time NCAA champion, and fellow student-athlete swimmer said of Thomas that: “I believe that tre ating people with respect and dignity is more important than any trophy or record will ever be, which is why I will not have a problem racing against Lia at NCAAs this year”.
In one notable race during January 2022 at a meet against UPenn’s Ivy league rival Yale, Thomas finished 6th place in the 100m freestyle race, losing to four cisgender women and Iszac Henig, a transgender man (transitioning from female to male without hormone therapy).
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Lia Thomas has followed all of the gender-related policies to be eligible to compete as a woman in NCAA swimming. In February 2022, Vicky Hartzler, a Republican Senate candidate in Missouri, featured Thomas in a campaign advertisement asserting that “Women’s sports are for women, not men pretending to be women”.
Thomas became the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I national championship in any sport in March 2022, after winning the women’s 500-yard freestyle. Roughly 50 protesters and counter-protesters gathered outside the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center where Thomas swam. Some in the stands carried banners saying “Save Women’s Sports“.
Lia Thomas net worth
How much is Lia Thomas worth? Lia Thomas net worth is estimated at around $200,000. Her main source of income is from her career as a swimmer. Thomas successful career has earned her some luxurious lifestyles and some fancy cars trips. She is one of the richest and influential swimmers in the United States. However, according to Sports Illustrated, Thomas has applied for law school and plans to swim at the 2024 Summer Olympics trials.