This was a big week for a bunch of the nation's most elite female swimmers: They worked their entire lives to make it to the Ivy League Championships, and then—beaming with pride and bursting with competitive camaraderie—they got to watch as a dude absolutely skunked them and cracked a gleaming new competition record.
University of Pennsylvania transgender swimmer Lia Thomas won the women's 500-yard freestyle at the Ivy League Championships Thursday — setting a new pool record.
Thomas, who transitioned from male to female, became an Ivy League champion with a time of 4:37.32 in the women's event – the best time ever recorded at Harvard University's Blodgett Pool.
Thomas' competitors kept it close until roughly the halfway mark – when she [sic] took a sizable lead and cut three seconds off her [sic] personal best, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Just in case you can't believe that an individual born with XY chromosomes could possibly post those kinds of numbers in an XX tournament, here's the footage:
Meanwhile, you can just imagine the parents in the stands, justly disappointed that their daughters are all runners-up but nevertheless filled with admiration at the magnificent athlete that just trounced their girls.
If you look closely in the footage you can see them applauding:
