"If you have to sue your way to the Olympics, you don’t deserve to be there" - Fans react to Lia Thomas taking legal action to return to competition

Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas has initiated legal action against World Aquatics, the global governing body that oversees international water sports competitions, to overturn the current ban on transgender women in elite-level events.

In this battle, Thomas is supported by Carlos Sayao, a leading lawyer in the top Canadian firm Tyr and a former swimmer who represented Canada in the Commonwealth Games 2002 in England.

According to Sayao, Thomas is appealing to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland to invalidate the rules established by World Aquatics in June 2022. The rules restrict trans women from participating in women's swimming events if they transitioned after the age of 12.

Riley Gaines, who competed against Thomas in the NCAA Women’s Championships and has since opposed transgender women's inclusion in women's sports, recently shared a video on X (Twitter) of Thomas talking about her Olympic dreams.

“It’s been a goal of mine to swim at Olympic trials for a very long time, and I would love to see that through," Thomas says in the video shared by Gaines.

The video is an old interview of Lia Thomas with “Good Morning America,” about a month before World Aquatics changed its policy by banning transgender athletes from competing in women's races.

Social media users have now shared their views on Lia Thomas initiating the lawsuit. A user wrote that if one has to take legal action to take part in an event, they don’t deserve to be there.

"If you have to sue your way to the Olympics, you don’t deserve to be there," the fan wrote.

Another angry user labeled Lia Thomas a "cheater" who needed therapy.

"Once a cheater, always a cheater. Lia Thomas is beyond selfish. He’s pathological. He can’t accept the reality that he’s a man. He can’t accept that women have rights. He needs therapy — not the Olympics," the user wrote.

Here are a few more reactions:

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Lia Thomas' Swimming Career

Thomas during the 2022 Ivy League Womens Swimming and Diving Championships (Photo by Kathryn Riley/Getty Images)

Lia Thomas transitioned to a trans woman after undergoing hormone replacement therapy in May 2019. After taking a year off to maintain her eligibility to participate in competitive swimming, she was included in the women’s swimming team in 2021-2022.

Thomas rose to the limelight while competing at the Zippy Invitational in 2021 where the athlete clinched the women’s 200 and 500-yard freestyle and the 1650 freestyle. In 2022, she became the first openly trans athlete to win an NCAA Division I National Championship as she clinched the women's 500-yard freestyle event.

However, this sparked controversy as people believed that transgender athletes competing with female swimmers in the women’s events would give the former a competitive advantage.