A photo of Lia Thomas and three of her competitors was taken out of context after Thomas, a transgender swimmer, won an NCAA national championship event.
The University of Virginia took home first place in the 2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming Championship, but one event, in particular, attracted attention above all others: the 500-yard freestyle. The event was won by Lia Thomas, a transgender swimmer competing for the University of Pennsylvania, making it the first event in which a transgender woman has won an NCAA Division I national championship in any sport.
One photograph from the event has spread as supposed evidence of the athletes protesting her Thomas’ victory. In the photo, Thomas is standing on the winner’s podium, as three of her competitors pose together on the third place podium, a short distance away from her. The claim has spread in multiple languages — a tweet in Spanish that claimed the swimmers “refused to celebrate” was liked more than 30,000 times.
Even some news stories have implied that Thomas’ peers may have avoided her. “Elsewhere, a Getty photo shows Weyant, Sullivan and fourth place finisher Brooke Forde posing while standing away from Thomas,” a Newsweek article said. “It is unclear whether this was an intended statement from the other swimmers rather than a standard picture where the winner is shot separately.”
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