Swimmer Lia Thomas didn’t lose “every title,” despite online claims

Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas recently lost her legal challenge to rules that bar her from competing in elite women’s races, including those in the upcoming Summer Olympics in Paris, because she had undergone male puberty. But claims she "has lost every title" are wrong. 

"Officially; Lia Thomas has lost every title," a July 1 Facebook post says. 

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

The Facebook post link to a blog post, but the blog post doesn’t mention Thomas’ titles.

That’s because Thomas hasn’t lost her titles. As a University of Pennsylvania swimmer, Thomas made history when she became the first transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I title at the 2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships. We previously fact-checked claims in 2023 that Thomas was stripped of her title. Those claims was false. 

As we revisited the claims more than a year later, we contacted the NCAA. Greg Johnson, a spokesperson for the organization, told PolitiFact that Thomas hasn’t been stripped of any awards from the NCAA 2022 Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships. 

Featured Fact-check

Bloggers

stated on September 3, 2018 in in a blog post

"Colin Kaepernick immediately loses Nike endorsement after anti-white rant."

NCAA records for 2022 still show her first-place finish for the 500-yard freestyle.

They also still show that Thomas tied for fifth place in the 200-yard freestyle race at that meet.

We rate claims she was stripped of "every title" False.