Transgender swimmers Lia Thomas and Iszac Henig had the top two times in the 800-yard freestyle in the Ivy League Swimming and Diving Championships on Wednesday night.
Iszac Henig: Swimming| Lia Thomas| New York Times
Swimming:
Penn’s Thomas and Yale’s Henig started the events for their respective squads. Thomas, who transitioned from male to female, got a bit of a challenge from Henig, who is transitioning from female to male and competing as a woman. Thomas swam behind Henig for much of the first leg before the next Penn swimmer jumped into the water.
Thomas was barely in first place after the first leg, finishing with a 1:44.50 while Henig had a 1:44.65 in the two fastest splits of the competition.
Neither team, though, would win the overall race with Harvard rallying for the victory. Yale finished second and Penn’s team, which also included Margot Kaczorowski, Anna Sofia Kalandadze.
Lia Thomas:
At the awards ceremony, fans could be heard cheering for the Quakers as the team was announced for third place. Thomas and her teammates were posing for pictures while on the medals stand.
Penn finished in fifth place in the 200-yard medley. Princeton won that event. The Ivy League Championships are set to run from Wednesday to Saturday. Harvard is leading the championships overall with Princeton, Yale, Penn and Brown rounding out the top five.
New York Times:
Transgender swimmers Lia Thomas and Iszac Henig brought the national spotlight to the Ivy League Championships this week and are going home conference champions as debate rages over eligibility rules. The senior got off to a slow start in the 500 free and had to come back against Princeton’s Ellie Marquardt.
But Thomas pulled away by the midpoint of the race. She finished in a time of 4:37:32 and took home first place, giving the Quakers 32 points for the total team rankings. Penn’s Thomas and Yale’s Henig dominated in the pool during their individual events.
Thomas’ got off to a bit of a slow start at the conference championships. She narrowly kept Penn in the lead during the first leg of the 800 free relay Wednesday. But the Quakers finished behind Princeton and Yale.
