Caitlyn Jenner slams trans swimmer Lia Thomas saying she has ‘a tremendous advantage over the girls’

Caitlyn Jenner has slammed transgender swimmer Lia Thomas for wanting to compete at the Olympics, saying she has ‘a tremendous advantage over the girls’. 

The former Olympic champion criticised Thomas’s desire to race against female swimmers, saying ‘we have to keep it fair for women’.

She added it was ‘just not fair’ on other competitors given she has already gone through puberty as a male, and her Olympic quest ‘the trans community look selfish’.

Thomas, who transitioned from a man to a woman while she was in college, has been criticised for competing in female swimming events after undergoing hormone replacement therapy. 

She has remained defiant, and in an interview earlier this year said she intended to keep on swimming and would attempt to swim at the Olympic trials.

This prompted Jenner to call her ‘bad publicity’ for the trans community in an interview with Dan Wootton on GB News last night. 

It came after he showed her an interview Thomas had with ABC in May, in which she claimed the legacy effects of testosterone from puberty should not disqualify her, saying: ‘There’s a lot of variation among cis female athletes, there’s cis women who are very tall and very muscular.’

She added she would like to try and get to the Olympics, saying: ‘It’s been a goal of mine to swim at the Olympic trials for a very long time and I would love to see that through.’

But this goal was blasted by Jenner, who said she was giving the trans community ‘bad publicity’.

Jenner, who competed as a man in Decathlon at two Olympic Games, told Dan Wootton on GB News last night: ‘Listening to her talk, it’s all about her. It’s not about what’s fair in sports. 

‘She has a tremendous advantage over the girls, she’s taller, has bigger hands, her cardio vascular system is bigger, she went through male puberty – all of those things and it’s just not fair.’

She added that Thomas’s Olympic quest was ‘bad publicity for the trans community’.  

Jenner said: ‘It makes the trans community look selfish and self-absorbed. Lia Thomas even said if you accept me as a woman, you accept me as woman athlete but no, we do not have to accept that.’ 

Caitlyn Jenner branded Lia Thomas ‘bad publicity’ for the trans community in an interview with Dan Wootton on GB News last night

Thomas, who transitioned from a man to a woman during college, has been criticised for competing against women in races

He added that there are ‘a lot of issues out there at the minute’, but that ‘number one, we have to keep it fair for women’.

Even if Thomas does qualify from the US Olympic trials, she might not be able to compete at the games themselves after new rules were introduced by swimming’s world governing body, FINA. 

Earlier this year the organisation banned trans athletes from competing in women’s elite races if they have gone through any part of the process of male puberty. 

It added it would aim to establish an ‘open’ category, so swimmers whose gender identity is different to their birth sex, are able to compete.

Jenner added FINA had come to the conclusion it’s not just about current hormone levels, and shared her experience of how going through male puberty had given her advantages.

Jenner said she wasn’t bothered about being labelled transphobic for her views on the matter as she feels like she’s on the ‘right side’

She said: ‘I went through male puberty. I was strong, 6ft 2. I’m 72 years old and I can still hit the ball 290 yards because my arms and legs are long. 

‘I can still do those types of things. I transitioned fully 7 years ago, but there’s still a lot left over there!’

Jenner has come under criticism from some trans activists for her stance on the matter, but said she didn’t care about being labelled transphobic.

She said: ‘I have taken so much flack. Honestly, I’ve got thick skin. They can come after me, I really don’t care. I can take all the criticism. I feel like I’m on the right side.’