Watch as DeSantis moves to name NCAA swim championship runner-up ‘best female swimmer’
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sees Emma Weyant, the NCAA 500-yard women’s freestyle event runner-up, as the true winner, going as far as to soon issue a proclamation deeming her the “best female swimmer”. Controversy has raged after Lia Thomas’ first-place get.
In a press conference, DeSantis stated the NCAA is “taking efforts to destroy women’s athletics” by allowing Thomas, a transgender woman, to compete.
“They’re trying to undermine the integrity of the competition and they’re crowning somebody else the woman’s champion, and we think that’s wrong,” he said.
DeSantis stated that Weyant, a Sarasota native and swimmer for the University of Virginia, had the fastest time of any “woman” in college athletics.
However, Thomas won the 500-yard women’s freestyle by nearly two seconds on Thursday in Atlanta. Several conservatives have criticized the University of Pennsylvania swimmer.
DeSantis also made other criticisms of the NCAA during the press conference.
“We need to stop allowing organizations like the NCAA to perpetuate frauds on the public, and that’s exactly what they’re doing,” he said.
In a later statement, he said, “A male identifying as a woman was allowed to compete in, and was declared the winner of, the race,” it read in part. “It is my determination that men should not be competing against women such as Emma Weyant.”
This story was originally published March 22, 2022 at 6:24 PM.
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