Ivy League women’s swimming is a subject that I likely would have known or cared little about until an eccentric young man named Will Thomas decided to draw attention to himself by pretending to be a woman named Lia, competing against female athletes who are admirably seeking recognition and achievement in the sport that he’s currently a pioneer in destroying.
His personal indulgence in the fantasy that he’s a woman was not enough, of course, and it’s certainly not the point. If he simply wanted to call himself Lia and grow out his hair and wear dresses while pretending to be a girl, that wouldn’t necessarily be anything new or noteworthy. What’s new, and the reason he’s all over the news, is that the media, the NCAA, and the self-appointed cultural elite have catered to his demand that the entire world of women’s sports serve his fantasy.
