Married At First Sight star Hayley Vernon has cheered on the recent ban against a competitive trans swimmer from entering the women’s Olympic race.
Transgender athlete Lia Thomas’ demand she be allowed to compete against women in the Olympics has been dealt a fatal blow after she lost a crucial lawsuit.
Now, Hayley, 37, has taken to Instagram on Thursday to celebrate Lia’s exclusion from the competition, saying the ban was a ‘step in the right direction’.
Posting an article announcing Lia’s lawsuit loss to her Stories, the former adult content creator wrote: ‘This is a step in the right direction for women in sport!’
Lia had asked the Court of Arbitration for Sport to overturn a ban on biological males competing against women in hopes of racing at the Games.
She first rose to prominence after becoming the first transgender athlete to win a NCAA college title in 2022 and has since been banned from competing against biological women in international events following a change in regulations.
World Aquatics changed its policies so that transgender women can only compete in women’s races if they have completed their transition by the age of 12.
Lia argued those rules should be declared ‘invalid and unlawful’, and broke the Olympic charter and the World Aquatics convention.
In a decision handed down at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, they concluded that Lia wasn’t ‘entitled to engage with eligibility to compete in WA competitions’.
World Aquatics welcomed the news, hailing it as a ‘major step forward in our efforts to protect women’s sport’.
The group told the outlet: ‘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.’
They introduced their new rules after Lia beat Olympic silver medalist Emma Weyant by 1.75 sec to win NCAA gold.
In a scientific document backing their ban on those who have ‘undergone any part of male puberty’, WA said swimmers like Lia retained physical advantages.
They said that such advantages included endurance, power, speed, strength and lung size, even after reducing their testosterone levels through medication.
On Wednesday, the court ruled that Lia had no standing to sue the transgender policy.