A July 21 Facebook post (direct link,archive link) shows a photo of a woman's volleyball team next to a photo of transgender swimmer Lia Thomas.
“US Women’s Team Says They’ll All Quit If Lia Thomas Gets a Tryout: ‘We Don’t Need a Ringer,’” reads text included in the post.
The post was shared more than 5,000 times in four days.
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The claim originated as satire and the writer of the original piece called it “completely fictional.”
Thomas became the first transgender athlete to win a national championship at the NCAA’s highest level when she won the 2022 Division I title in the women’s 500-yard freestyle in March. The accomplishment made her a central figure in the ongoing discussion about transgender women in sports.
The Facebook post links to a story published on a website called "Health of Ministry" in the comments.
The text in the story on the website is nearly identical to one posted in June by the Dunning-Kruger Times, which is described as a subsidiary of the America’s Last Line of Defense network of satirical websites. Its “About Us” section says “Everything on this website is fiction.”
Christopher Blair, creator of America's Last Line of Defense, told USA TODAY in an email that everything in the story about Thomas is “satire and...
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