American trans swimmer and activist Lia Thomas has said she is going to “keep fighting” after President Donald Trump vowed to “keep men out of women’s sports” and ban them from competing at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Thomas was the first openly trans athlete to win gold in a national championship, having won the women’s 500-yard freestyle event in 2022, before being barred from competing in women’s events by World Aquatics.
Speaking via Zoom to the HiTOPS Trans Youth Forum, Thomas said: “I am going to keep fighting as much as I am able to. In order to fight the battles we need to fight, we have to stick together and support each other.”
Last year, Thomas faced a setback when the Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed her appeal to overturn a ban on biological males competing against women, in hopes of participating in the Paris Olympics. World Aquatics had altered its policies so that trans women can only compete in women’s races if they have completed their transition by the age of 12.
Thomas’ hopes of competing at the 2026 Olympics in Los Angeles are also hanging by a thread. A White House official previously confirmed that the US will use “all of our authority and our ability” to enforce Trump’s order, government officials also urged to block transgender women from entering the country.
