USA Swimming Official QUITS over Trans-Identified Male Swimmer
A USA Swimming official has resigned in protest of how trans-identified male swimmer Lia Thomas has been allowed to compete against female athletes.
Cynthia Millen, who has been an official with USA Swimming for 30 years, has stepped down, saying: “I can’t do this ... I can’t support this.” Millen resigned on December 17, in the midst of preparations to officiate the US Paralympics Swimming National Championships in Greensboro, North Carolina.
"I told my fellow officials that I can no longer participate in a sport which allows biological men to compete against women. Everything fair about swimming is being destroyed," Millen wrote in a letter she submitted to the Washington Times.
On December 22, Millen appeared on Fox News' The Ingraham Angle to elaborate on her position and further explain her resignation, stating "bodies compete against bodies. Gender identities don’t swim.”
Lia Thomas, a biological male, has dominated the female NCAA swimming categories since being cleared to compete earlier this year. He swam as Will Thomas with the UPenn male division for years prior to announcing he identified as female. Thomas had been competing in the male category as recently as 2019.
Since identifying as a woman, Thomas has outperformed nearly every female he has competed against, as well as broken multiple US women's swimming records.
Thomas' teammates have been expressing displeasure with his appropriation of female athletic spaces, with multiple teammates having come out with harsh criticisms of his behavior and performance.
"On paper, if Lia Thomas gets back down to Will Thomas’ best times, those numbers are female world records. Faster than all the times Katie Ledecky went in college. Faster than any other Olympian you can think of. His times in three events are [female] world records.” One female teammate explained, speaking to OutKick sports magazine on December 14 under the condition of anonymity.
"They feel so discouraged because no matter how much work they put in it, they’re going to lose. Usually, they can get behind the blocks and know they out-trained all their competitors and they’re going to win and give it all they’ve got,” another swimmer said, similarly anonymous due to what she described as "threats" from the university and activists towards female athletes who wished to speak out.
On The Ingraham Angle, resigned official Cynthia Millen firmly stated that there was no situation in which it would be appropriate for a biological male to compete against women.
“I don’t mean to be critical of Lia — whatever’s going on, Lia’s a child of God, a precious person — but bodies swim against bodies,” Millen said. “That’s a male body swimming against females. And that male body can never change. That male body will always be a male body."
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