Trans athlete is 'destroying women's swimming' says official who resigned in protest

Transgender University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas is "going to be destroying women’s swimming," says USA Swimming official Cynthia Millen, who resigned in protest last week.

"It’s horrible," Millen said on "Tucker Carlson Tonight." "The statement for women then is you do not matter, what you do is not important, and little girls are going to be thrown under the bus by all of this."

"USA swimming recognizes that boys swim differently from girls," said Millen, who has officiated swim meets for three decades. She explained, "boys will always have larger lung capacity, larger hearts, greater circulation, a bigger skeleton, and less fat."

Thomas competed as a man at the collegiate level for two full seasons until 2019 before taking a year off swimming to take testosterone blockers. 

"The fact is that swimming is a sport in which bodies compete against bodies. Identities do not compete against identities," Millen said. "Men are different from women, men swimmers are different from women, and they will always be faster than women."

Despite meeting the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) requirement for testosterone suppression, Thomas has broken multiple national and school women's swimming records.

Iconic athletes recently voiced their opposition to the NCAA's decision to allow Thomas to compete as a woman. Olympic gold medal swimmer Nancy Hogshead-Makar wrote an article about why the ruling is unfair to female athletes. Her concerns were echoed by fellow Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies and tennis stars Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert.