“Emma Weyant is best female swimmer” – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis refuses to recognise Lia Thomas NCAA women’s event winner

“Emma Weyant is best female swimmer” – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis refuses to recognise Lia Thomas NCAA women’s event winner

Ron DeSantis and Lia Thomas

Florida governor Ron DeSantis has signed a proclamation acknowledging runner-up Emma Weyant as the winner of the 500-yard freestyle race. Earlier, the transgender athlete Lia Thomas beat Weyant by 1.75 seconds in a women’s college swimming event.

With this, Lia on Thursday in Atlanta became the first transgender National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) champion in Division I history. On the other hand, Emma, the 2020 Tokyo Olympic silver-medalist and Florida native attending the University of Virginia, clocked a time of 4:34.99. 

“We’re going to be doing a proclamation saying that Emma [Weyant] is the best female swimmer in the 500-yard freestyle event last week,” DeSantis said in a news conference on Tuesday. “She earned that and we need to stop allowing organizations like the NCAA to perpetrate frauds on the public.”

FS Video

“NCAA trying to undermine the integrity of the competition”

Lia Thomas
Lia Thomas

Thomas, a University of Pennsylvania swimmer, finished with a 4:33.82 in the preliminaries and took home the national women’s 500 free title with a time of 4:33.24 in the finals.

“If you look at what the NCAA has done in allowing basically men to compete in women’s athletics, and in this case swimming … you had the number one woman who finished was from Sarasota, Emma Weyant. She won the silver medal, she’s been an absolute superstar her whole career,” DeSantis said.

“To compete at that level is very, very difficult. And you don’t just roll out of bed and do it. That takes grit. That takes determination … She had the fastest time of any woman in college athletics. Now the NCAA is basically taking efforts to destroy women’s athletics. They’re trying to undermine the integrity of the competition, crowning somebody else the women’s champion, and we think that’s wrong,” he continued. 

Also Read | Virginia swimmer Reka Gyorgy finishes behind Lia Thomas; pens critical letter to NCAA after 500 Free exit