Karoline Leavitt laughed sarcastically and didn’t forget to make fun of Lia Thomas: “If this transgender athlete still dreams of competing in the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles as a women’s swimming star, then maybe the World Olympic Committee should immediately create a whole new sport called…virtual swimming, where swimming laps are not done in water real, but only exist in their imagination and unrealistic dreams… The full story
In a world where the boundaries between sport, identity and reality are increasingly blurred, the voice of Karoline Leavitt, former White House press secretary under the Trump administration and current leading figure in the American conservative debate, has once again reignited passions. With a sarcastic laugh that resonated on social networks, Leavitt did not hesitate to attack Lia Thomas, the transgender swimmer who was the epicenter of one of the most heated controversies in women’s sport. “If this transgender athlete still dreams of competing in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles as a women’s swimming star,” Leavitt said in a tweet that racked up thousands of interactions in a matter of hours, “then maybe the International Olympic Committee should immediately create a whole new sport called…virtual swimming, where swimming laps are not done in real water, but only exist in his imagination and dreams. unrealistic.” This comment, loaded with irony and a touch of cruelty, triggered a storm of divided opinions, relaunching a debate which seemed temporarily put aside by the stricter rules imposed by sports federations.
To understand the context of these mockeries, we have to go back to 2022, when Lia Thomas, born William Thomas, burst onto the American college swimming scene. He previously competed in the men’s category for the University of Pennsylvania, where his times were solid but not exceptional. After her gender transition, Thomas began competing in the women’s category, and in March of that year, she became the first transgender athlete to win an NCAA championship in the 500-meter freestyle, beating rivals such as Emma Weyant and Erica Sullivan, Olympic medalists at Tokyo 2020. This triumph wasn’t just a victory in the pool; It was an earthquake. Athletes like Riley Gaines, who shared a locker room with Thomas, publicly denounced the perceived injustice: “They didn’t tell us he still had male genitalia,” Gaines testified before Virginia lawmakers, arguing that Thomas’ presence was eroding fairness in women’s sports. Criticism spread quickly, with conservative figures like Leavitt amplifying the message. At the time, Leavitt, then a congressional candidate in New Hampshire, tweeted: “This is infuriating. When will this nonsense end, NCAA? How many women’s dreams are you going to crush?” Their position was clear: men, regardless of their gender identity, should not compete with women in elite sports.
Leavitt’s sarcasm doesn’t come out of nowhere. In June 2024, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejected Thomas’ appeal against World Aquatics, the international swimming federation, confirming her exclusion from elite women’s competitions. The new rules, implemented in 2022, require transgender athletes who have gone through male puberty to compete in an open or male category, in order to preserve the “integrity” of women’s sport. Thomas, then aged 25, saw his Olympic dreams for Paris 2024 and, by extension, Los Angeles 2028, cut short, barring a radical change in the policy of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). However, the IOC has maintained a more flexible approach, delegating to individual federations, which leaves the door open to interpretation. It’s in this limbo that Leavitt sees an opportunity to make fun. His “virtual swimming” proposal isn’t just a joke; » echoes conservative demands for strict segregation based on biological sex at birth. “Unrealistic dreams should not interfere with the reality of real female athletes,” Leavitt added in a later interview, defending her position as an advocate for fairness.
The reaction was immediate. On social media, Leavitt’s tweet racked up more than 50,000 likes in the first 24 hours, with conservatives celebrating his “bravery” and memes proliferating about imaginary swimming pools and ethereal medals. Celebrities like Fox News host Jimmy Failla joined the chorus: “Lia Thomas will only fight contractions in the pool from now on,” he joked, alluding to jokes about hormonal transition. On the other hand, LGBTQ+ activists and sports inclusion advocates condemned the comment as transphobic and cruel. Caitlyn Jenner, herself a former transgender athlete and conservative ally on sports issues, has been more nuanced in the past, but this time she has remained silent, while organizations like GLAAD have issued statements reminding us that “transition is not looking for benefits, but authenticity.” Thomas, for her part, has been brief in her public responses since her legal defeat. In a rare interview in 2022, she said: “I am a woman and I swim to be happy, not to dominate. » But with her current inactivity and moments that no longer place her on the elite women’s podium, her Olympic aspirations indeed seem confined to the hypothetical.
This episode highlights the cracks in the Olympic movement regarding transgender inclusion. The Los Angeles 2028 Games, with their promise of innovation and diversity, are shaping up to be a battleground. As the IOC debates unified frameworks – a process that could extend into 2026 – cases like Thomas’ serve as a catalyst. In the United States, 24 states have enacted laws restricting trans participation in school and college sports, driven by scientific arguments about pubertal benefits: studies cited by World Aquatics indicate that trans women maintain up to 10 to 12 percent advantages in strength and speed, even after years of hormone therapy. Critics like Leavitt use this data to support their sarcasm, while bioethicists like Joanna Harper warn that generalizations ignore individual variation.
Ultimately, Leavitt’s mockery transcends Thomas. It’s a reminder of the extent to which sport, that bastion of physical success, has become a proxy for the culture wars. Should the IOC give in to Leavitt’s “virtual swimming” or embrace the complexity of human identity? For many swimmers, like those who protested in 2022, the answer is clear: fairness is non-negotiable. For Thomas and his allies, it is a question of dignity. As Los Angeles prepares for 2028, with its swimming pools sparkling under the Californian sun, the echo of this sarcastic laughter reminds us that, in the water or out of the water, the waves of controversy do not stop. All history, as Leavitt says, has not yet been written – but with real, not imaginary, rules.
