Short #7: Riley Discovered Her Top Competition for a National Title Was a Biological Male

Now ranking in third place in women’s swimming nationwide, Riley Gaines discovers that her main competitor in the path to a national championship in women’s swimming (Riley’s life-long goal) is the University of Pennsylvania’s (U of Penn) Lia Thomas. But in a bone-jarring twist, Miss Thomas is reported in a news article to be Will Thomas, who swam three years on U of Penn’s men’s team before deciding to switch to the women’s team. Following the initial shock of this revelation, Riley says she felt a sense of relief when she read about Will Thomas’s stats, which placed him in the middle pack when he competed in his rightful men’s category. Unfortunately, this story only gets worse. Watch for the next reel in this series.