It’s tempting to feel sympathy for Lia Thomas, the born-male UPenn swimmer paddle kicking all the other young women out of the pool, if one buys into the idea that Lia is a misunderstood young person seeking identity. But that’s a narrative fast becoming hard to identify with as Lia seems driven less by the search for identity and more by competition. Here’s a post-swim interview following a championship win at the NCAA swim meet in Atlanta on Thursday.

“It means the world to be here.”

Lia Thomas spoke about swimming in the NCAA women's championships. pic.twitter.com/aP0afVA0KE

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 18, 2022

“It means the world to be here…and to be able to compete,” Lia says, while admitting the strategy is to block out the noise of the controversy surrounding the fact that a born-male swimmer is beating female athletes by several seconds in most races and bumping them from further competition. Lia says nothing about that. And women — her teammates, women’s groups, and the world at large — are beginning to notice.

Given that Lia has has made no real moves toward transitioning to a woman besides hormone treatments and simply verbally embracing the female gender — the male parts remain as does a reported interest in dating women, by some reports — this is all starting to feel very like something most women have had to deal with in some version or another in their lives: men supplanting them in accolades despite their hard work and achievements.

In short, it’s beginning to feel a lot like toxic misogyny.

Woman of the Year is a man Best woman’s swimmer is a man pic.twitter.com/OEZRKNu2zn

— Jon Root (@JonnyRoot_) March 17, 2022

Women’s groups have begun to voice that opinion.

Women’s rights protesters were furious after trans athlete Lia Thomas was dubbed a women’s NCAA swimming champion on Thursday.

“There’s a man, called Will Thomas, who’s changed his name to Lia Thomas, who is competing in women’s swimming,” Kellie-Jay Keen, head of the organization Standing for Women, said in an interview with Fox News outside the Georgia Tech athletic center where the competition is being held.

“Women aren’t considered full humans,” she continued. “We can’t be – otherwise there wouldn’t be an opportunity for men to compete in women’s sports.”

…

“There is absolutely no feasible way that a man competing in a women’s swimming race is fair or just. There is every feasible way that it is an act of grave cowardice by the NCAA,” Keen told Fox News.

On Thursday, Concerned Women for America filed a lawsuit with the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights alleging that UPenn has failed to protect women’s rights under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.

🚨 BREAKING: @CWforA has filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights against the University of Pennsylvania. (THREAD)

— Concerned Women for America LAC (@CWforA) March 17, 2022

The complaint accusing the university of “refusing to protect the rights of college female athletes” under Title IX was filed on the first day of the NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships, where the UPenn senior is a leading contender.

“The future of women’s sports is at risk and the equal rights of female athletes are being infringed,” said Penny Nance, CEO and president of Concerned Women for America. “We filed a formal civil rights complaint against UPenn in response to this injustice.”

…

Foes of allowing biological males in female sports argue that Thomas has physical advantages unmuted by testosterone suppression alone.

“Thomas is anatomically and biologically a male with physical capacities that are different from anatomically and biologically female athletes, which extends an unfair advantage and strips female student-athletes of opportunities afforded to them by law,” CWA said.

The group cited in its complaint “reports that Thomas‘ own teammates have complained about UPenn allowing a hostile environment to fester in its locker room which has put them in apprehension.”

And so the fight has now become a legal one. Lia Thomas’ time beating girls in the pool may soon be coming to an end, but there will be plenty of gold medals for comfort no matter what happens in court. The sympathy, however, may never come again.