USA Swimming Changes Rules In Wake Of Transgender Athlete's Success

A transgender American swimmer's controversial career hung in the balance Wednesday after USA Swimming announced new rules, including testosterone limits, that could impact her ability to race competitively. Lia Thomas has dominated US collegiate women's swimming as a student athlete at the University of Pennsylvania where, just a few years ago, she competed on the men's team.

Now, amid an uproar fueled by those who say Thomas has an unfair advantage, USA Swimming unveiled guidelines that do not mention the 22-year-old by name but will impact her future in the sport -- although exactly how remains unclear.

The policy said that because swimming is "an important vehicle for positive physical and mental health," it remains committed to "greater inclusivity" at the non-elite levels of the sport.

But critics said the new policy from the governing body for competitive swimming in the United States might achieve just the opposite.

USA Swimming said it had created a new set of guidelines for transgender athlete participation in elite competition that "relies on science and medical evidence-based methods to provide a level-playing field for elite cisgender women, and to mitigate the advantages associated with male puberty and physiology."

It said that a three-member panel comprised of medical experts and a veteran athlete was being established to implement the new policy and to rule on specific cases.

A key criterion that the panel will look for is that "from a medical perspective, the prior physical development of the athlete as a male, as mitigated by any medical intervention, does not give the athlete a competitive advantage over the athlete's cisgender female competitors."

In addition, a swimmer is ineligible "unless the