Lia Thomas, a former NCAA swimming champion, has formally criticized World Aquatics rules that restrict transgender athletes’ ability to compete in the Olympics.
Thomas filed a claim with the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland last September, according to conservative U.K. newspaper The Telegraph and NBC News, respectively. The dispute involves various recently implemented World Aquatics laws that prohibit most transgender women and transgender individuals from competing in international women’s swimming competitions like the Olympics and the Swimming World Cup in favor of a new “open” category.
In brief remarks to The Telegraph this year, Carlos Sayao, a partner at the American law firm Tyre that is representing Thomas, described these policies as “discriminatory.”
Sayao claimed in the paper that World Aquatics’ plans would “profoundly harm transgender people” because “transgender women are particularly vulnerable in society and they suffer from higher rates of violence, abuse, and assault than cisgender people.”
The dispute between Thomas and World Aquatics was not immediately made public despite being filed more than four months ago because CAS mediation is by definition private. The CAS has previously defended other limitations on transgender and intersex athletes, though it is unclear how the judges will respond to Thomas’ complaint. Caster Semenya, a transgender runner, was ruled against by the CAS in 2019 in favor of World Athletics regulations limiting athletes’ testosterone levels. The court determined that even though those policies were “discriminatory,” “such discrimination is a necessary, reasonable, and proportionate means” of regulating sports competitions.
She would also file an appeal if Thomas were to lose this dispute, despite the fact that the CAS is regarded as the “Supreme Court of Sport.” Semenya appealed her case to the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland after losing in the CAS. Semenya ultimately appealed to the European Court of Human Rights once more despite losing there as well. The court ruled in her favor in 2023 and awarded the Swedish government about $66,000 in damages. However, the Swedish government and World Athletics have both contested that decision in motion and are still enforcing those hormonal regulations, if not implementing new, more stringent restrictions.
