Transgender swimmer, Lia Thomas on school problems, rebirth and negative comments

• swimming

Lia Thomas, a transgender swimmer, shows her courage and perseverance despite the fact that many have turned against her, she does not give up sports, and her ideals. In a conversation with Sports Illustrated, Lia also showed her other side.

Obviously, the swimmer wants to send a message to the world that she will always be what she really is, but also to people who do not feel good in their skin to openly acknowledge what they are. “I’m a woman, just like anybody else on the team,” Thomas told Sports Illustrated “I’ve always viewed myself as just a swimmer.

It’s what I’ve done for so long; it’s what I love. I get into the water every day and do my best." "I’ve been reinvigorated,
At certain moments, she had problems at school due to swimming, but also with sleep I’ve been swimming for 17 years but for [only] a short part of that time have I felt fully engaged.

“I got to the point where I couldn’t go to school. I was missing classes,” she says. “My sleep schedule was super messed up. Some days I couldn’t get out of bed. I knew at that moment I needed to do something to address this."

Lia Thomas 2020

From 2020 Thomas began to use her new name “In a way, it was sort of a rebirth, for the first time in my life, feeling fully connected to my name and who I am and living who I am," she said.

“I just want to show trans kids and younger trans athletes that they’re not alone. They don’t have to choose between who they are and the sport they love”. She feels much better now than before “I felt, mentally, a lot better and healthier pretty quickly," she explained.

"The relief it gave me was quite substantial”. Lia still doesn't give up swimming, and as she says, she doesn't look back on negative comments I don’t know exactly what the future of my swimming will look like after this year but I would love to continue doing it," she said.

“I want to swim and compete as who I am. I don’t look into the negativity and the hate. I am here to swim”.