The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has rejected a lawsuit from transgender American swimmer Lia Thomas, which requested it remove a policy barring her from participating in women’s events in elite swimming. A CAS panel said in its ruling obtained by USA Today Sports on Wednesday, Thomas lacked standing to appeal the policy developed by international swimming federation World Aquatics, as it does not apply to her right now. At the moment, the CAS panel said she is ineligible to compete in elite events held by World Aquatics or USA Swimming. “She is currently only entitled to compete in USA Swimming events that do not qualify as ‘Elite Events,’” said the CAS panel to USA Today Sports. Thomas became the first transgender athlete to win a National Collegiate Athletics Association championship at the Division One level. Because of changes World Aquatics had made about transgender female athletes amid her success, she accused it of being discriminatory. To deal with transgender athletes, World Aquatics proposed creating an open category to accomodate them. It said it was happy with the ruling, calling it “a major step forward in our efforts to protect women's sport.” “World Aquatics is dedicated to fostering an environment that promotes fairness, respect, and equal opportunities for athletes of all genders and we reaffirm this pledge,” it said to USA Today Sports. “Our policies and practices are continuously evaluated to ensure they align with these core values, which led to the introduction of our open category.”While Thomas might find it to be unreasonable, it said it is “committed to working collaboratively with all stakeholders to uphold the principles of inclusivity in aquatic sports and remain confident that our gender inclusion policy represents a fair approach.”World Aquatics voted in 2022 to restrict transgender athletes from competing against women and said they plan on implementing a new open category for them in some events as part of a new policy. READ MORE: FINA votes to ban transgender swimmer Lia Thomas from competing against womenThe vote, which was 71.5% in favour of the new policy, took place after representatives heard speeches from a working group set up in 2021. This working group consisted of three sets of specialists— athletics, science and medicine, and legal and human rights. After analyzing the conclusions of these groups, it developed a new policy that will apply at all events. It will be followed for world record ratification, wherever the competition takes place.
