USA Swimming Official Quits In Protest Of Transgender Swimmer Lia Thomas

There appear to be cracks in the silence that was deafening across the collegiate and U.S. Olympic swimming community as Penn transgender swimmer Lia Thomas was smashing records and leaving teammates in tears at the beginning of the month. Two brave Penn swimmers sat down with OutKick for anonymous interviews, but voices within swimming leadership hadn't come forward to speak out until USA Swimming official Cynthia Millen stepped forward.

In a December 17 letter to USA Swimming, Millen announced she was quitting in protest.

"I can't do this, I can't support this," Millen announced via her resignation.

“I told my fellow officials that I can no longer participate in a sport which allows biological men to compete against women,” Millen wrote in her letter. Everything fair about swimming is being destroyed.”

Cynthia Miller has quit her job with USA Swimming in protest of transgender swimmer Lia Thomas / via Fox News

How would Millen have handled Thomas' situation in Akron where Thomas set a bunch of records and beat biologically female teammate by 38 seconds?

“If Lia came on my deck as a referee, I would pull the coach aside and say, ‘Lia can swim, but Lia can swim exhibition or a time trial. Lia cannot compete against those women because that’s not fair,’” the former swimming official told the Washington Times.

Millen is now calling on officials to refuse to work races where transgender swimmers are to race against biological females, the Times reports.

During an interview with Fox News, Millen echoed the sentiments of the Penn swimmers who talked to OutKick. The female swimmers go into races knowing there's nothing they can do to outperform Thomas.

"It's placing women who can never compete with a man at a gross disadvantage by basically … calling this person a female competitor," Millen told Raymond Arroyo. "He's not. It's his body that will always be different and always be faster as a competitive swimmer. And it's this great illusion that somehow, because he feels he's a female, that he can be a female swimmer. This is grossly unfair to all the women who have worked so hard. Women biologically will never be faster than men." 

Still, the NCAA remains silent on Thomas and seems set to allow the Penn swimmer to attend the NCAA championships in March where Thomas will be the odds on favorite to leave with at least one national title and maybe more.

"Bodies swim against bodies. Gender identities don't swim," Millen told Fox. "Lia is a man who is swimming against women."