Lia Thomas waves to her friend after finishing fifth in the 200 free.
The story has been updated with quotes from the NCAA national champion.
Lia Thomas, the controversial college swimmer who won the NCAA DI National Champion trophy in the 500-freestyle Thursday, finished a distant fifth in the 200 yard free Friday night.
The winner, two-time Canadian Olympian Taylor Ruck, set a pool record with her winning time. California swimmers dominated the final.
Thomas, who won the preliminary race with a time of 1:42.09, finished more than two seconds behind Ruck and 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 She and Riley Gaines of the University of Kentucky were tied at 1:43:40.
The fifth swimmer from the top was Lia Thomas.
At the halfway point of the final, Thomas was in seventh place, but he passed USC's Laticia Transom. In the final 50 yards, the Austin, Texas native even pulled even with her opponent, and her pattern has been to build slowly and pour it on in the last laps. She was never able to catch up to the Cal swimmer who dominated the first 150 yards of the race.
David Rieder noted that Thomas's 100 yard split of 50.34 was much quicker than her halfway time of 50.87 in prelims. She was almost a second slower on each of the splits after Thomas split 25-mid efforts on the third and fourth 50s.
Outsports reported that trans athletes do not always win.
Activists from Save Women's Sports booed Lia Thomas at the Atlanta aquatics center.
Anti-trans activists and inclusion advocates were prevented from demonstrating outside the McAuley Aquatics Center due to the steady rain and storms. A group of protesters sat in the stands across from the pool and booed when Thomas was introduced before the race, and again when he appeared on the podium as the 5th place finisher.
The winner of the NCAA Women's DI 200-yard National Championship is awarded the trophy at the Georgia Tech aquatic center.
There was no crowd of supporters as Thomas walked alone across the aquatic center. She waved to her friend, who was the first trans athlete to compete in DI. In 2015, Bailar swam for the Harvard men.
The crowd cheered loudly for Ruck and the other cisgender women who finished behind her. As she got out of the pool, a large group of teammates greeted her. This victory puts her in a tie with a swimmer who was the fourth-fastest in NCAA history.
Her winning time was a fraction of a second faster than her closest competitor, who was a close second throughout the heat. She was a half second behind Thomas in Friday's prelims.
This is the first individual NCAA title for Ruck. As Swimming World reported last year, Ruck has struggled with life outside the pool, battling eating disorders, a not uncommon problem afflicting student-athletes.
It certainly has been a journey since then, according to Ruck at a late night news conference on Friday. The past few years have been very hard for everyone, and everyone just has their own path and journey through it. My eating disorder was related to mine. I am happy to say that I am on the other side of that struggle, and I hope that anyone else is able to do the same.
She told me that being back at her dream school after the Pandemic has been very meaningful to her. She saw an opportunity on a family road trip when the weather was great.
She said that they used to drive up the coast from Arizona. I remember walking past the pool at the aquatic center when we stopped atStanford one year ago. I think I'm 10 years old, and I don't know, that's where I wanted to go. I felt awe in that moment.
I asked her what she thought about Thomas. She said she heard chatter about beer, but was focused on her own performance and didn't think it was unfair for Thomas to compete.
Thomas was not obligated to speak to the news media Friday since she didn't finish first. Thomas has decided to not speak to any reporters until tomorrow in Atlanta, according to Michael Mahoney, Penn's spokesman.
The first time in NCAA history that two out trans student-athletes will compete in the same race is when she and Iszac Henig compete in the 100 freestyle.
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