Now to an ABC News ESPN
exclusive with Leah Thomas.
She's the elite athlete who became
the first openly transgender woman
to win an NCAA swimming title.
She's speaking out in her first
interview with ABC's Juju Chang.
She's the swimmer who created shockwaves
across the country's 23 year old Leah Thomas
Leah Thomas, pulling away the
Upenn swimmer making history in March
as the first known transgender athlete
to win a Division One national title.
But her athletic achievements on the
women's swim team igniting fierce
debate over fairness in women's sports.
It is just not fair when it
comes to competition.
It's just not a fair fight.
Throughout the controversy,
Thomas has largely remained quiet until now.
I knew there would be
scrutiny against me if I.
Competed as a woman.
I was prepared for that,
but I also don't need anybody's
permission to be myself and to
to do the sport that I love.
Assigned male at birth,
Thomas grew up in Austin, TX,
where she says she fell in love with
swimming when she was just four,
but as she grew she said she felt
increasingly disconnected to her body.
I didn't feel like I was a boy.
I was like this, isn't this isn't me.
This isn't who I am.
Thomas earned a spot at her
Ivy League Dream School.
You Penn on the men's team,
but by her sophomore year,
she says her gender dysphoria
left her depressed and suicidal.
I was barely going to classes.
I could really barely get out of bed,
and I. I said I can't.
I can't live like this anymore and I want
to be able to do things I enjoy even
if it might cost me my swimming pool.
Yeah, and that's that's part of
what kept me from transitioning
for so long as I wasn't sure.
If I could. Continuous swimming
and doing the sports I love.
Thomas began HRT hormone replacement
therapy in May of her sophomore year 2019.
The mental emotional changes
actually happened very quickly.
I was feeling a lot better mentally.
I was I was less depressed and I lost
muscle mass and I became a lot weaker
and a lot a lot slower in the water.
After following NCAA guidelines of
a year of hormone therapy to change
gender categories, Thomas started
her senior year on the women's.
Theme, but her success in the
water was met with outrage leading
up to the NCAA championships.
Her critics say she jumped in the
rankings between the men's and the
women's team and there are some who look
at the data and suggest that you're
enjoying a competitive advantage.
What do you say to that?
There's a lot of factors that go
into a race and how well you do.
And the biggest change for
me is that I'm happy and.
Sophomore year, where I had my
best times competing with the men.
I was miserable and so having that be
lifted is incredibly relieving and.
Allows me to put my all into.
Training into racing trans people
don't transition for athletics.
We transition to be hay and authentic
and our true selves transitioning
to get an advantage is not something
that ever factors into our decisions.
You didn't. Transition
to win more medals. No,
Thomas quickly became a lightning
rod 16 of her own teammates and
some of their parents were anonymous
letters arguing Thomas posed a
threat to women's sports. The women
who signed the letter anonymously
said that they absolutely supported
your right to transition,
but they simply think it's unfair for you
to compete against cisgendered women.
You can't go halfway and be like I support.
Trans women and trans people,
but only only to a certain point
where if you support trans women
as women and they've met all the
all the NCAA requirements and then
I don't know if you can really
say something like that.
Trans women are not a
threat to women's sports.
While the science on transgender
athletes is new and evolving.
Some medical experts say the effects
of higher testosterone during male
puberty may never be fully erased. What
are the physical aspects that
trans women may not be able to
rollback with hormone therapy?
Obviously issues related to body size,
airway size, hand size, foot size,
perhaps bone density and so forth,
but I think the main thing is the
just the interactions of exercise,
training and skeletal muscle.
Are you saying that years of hormone
therapy cannot put trans women in place
to compete with cisgendered women?
I think that evidence so far
would suggest that period.
Have a year or two years, three years,
four years is probably insufficient.
There is this concept of the
legacy effects of testosterone
and that that can't ever be 0.
Should that eliminate or
disqualify transgender women?
I'm not a medical expert, but there is.
There's a lot of variation
among CIS female athletes.
There's CIS women who are very
tall and very muscular and
have more testosterone than.
This woman and should that
then also disqualify them
in January? The NCAA updated its
transgender athlete eligibility guidelines,
saying each sports governing body could
make their own rules later clarifying.
It wouldn't impose the new rules
mid season clearing the way for
Thomas to compete at the NCAA
is an incredible experience to be able
to fulfill that personal goal and
be at that meet as well as competing
as my authentic self was just.
Such an amazing experience to have these
these things that I've been working
towards for so long all come come together.
Are there Olympics in your future?
It's been a goal of mine to to support
that Olympic trials for very long time
and I would love to see that through.