WATCH: Former NCAA coach speaks out on Lia Thomas controversy
Former University of Southern California coach David Salo spoke to Campus Reform about the need to protect women's sports.
With the NCAA Division I Swimming National Championships on the horizon, former University of Southern California women’s swimming coach David Salo spoke to Campus Reform about recent policy changes happening in light of the Lia Thomas controversy.
The NCAA recently ruled that Thomas, a man competing on the University of Pennsylvania women’s swim team, is eligible to compete at the national championship next month.
”My position is that we need to do everything we can to protect... biological women and biological girls in sport, in particular competition and swimming,” Salo said.
In January, the NCAA updated its guidelines to make transgender qualifications a “sport by sport basis.”
In response, the College Swimming Coaches Association called on the NCAA to provide an additional spot in the championship final to prevent Thomas from displacing a biological female.
Salo told Campus Reform that this proposed solution does not solve the problem of protecting a fair playing field.
”The [CSCA] proposal doesn’t answer the question [and] doesn’t create a fair playing field for biological women,” Salo explained. “There are only so many roster spots allowed at the NCAA championships. You open it up for one more spot, it still displaces.”
Salo also explained that a Thomas victory in the 200-meter freestyle and 500-meter freestyle would still affect the competition, as the woman who would have won the event, the woman barred from the final, and the woman cut from the consolation final would all be displaced.
Recently, USA Swimming updated its transgender policy to stipulate transgender male-to-female athletes must record low levels of testosterone 36 months prior to the competition.
Click on the video above to watch the full interview.
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