Thread by @hecheateddotorg

I know almost everyone knows how ridiculously unfair it was for William aka "Lia" Thomas to swim on the women's team at UPenn, but I don't know if anyone realizes just what a farce it was from a coaching standpoint as well. They knew exactly what they were doing... 🧵

Before we look at Thomas's performance, there are a few things you need to understand about swimming. I'm not a swimmer, but similar concepts apply to track and field (one of my former sports).

The first is about "tapering." In swimming, athletes build up their fitness with heavier, more intense workouts in the beginning and middle of the season. This puts their bodies under constant stress and fatigue.

At the end of the season, it is common practice for coaches to beginning reducing workout intensity for athletes to give their bodies the ability to "peak" right when they need to in championship meets.

The lessened load allows athletes to recover and their performances figuratively explode. (I have seen and experienced it myself). This is often when records and personal bests are set.

The second concept is that of specialization. For track and field, runners often go either the distance or sprint route as they each require different types of fitness. It is uncommon for someone to excel at both.

I believe it is similar in swimming (correct me if I'm wrong, swimmers). It would be uncommon for a swimmer in the 100 freestyle to also be swimming the 1650 as well.

This is where Thomas comes in. William Thomas swam for three years on the men's UPenn swim team. His main event was the 1000 yard freestyle, which he swam 18 times.
His event entries in individual events are as follows:
1000 Free - 18 entries
500 Free - 14 entries
1650/1500 Free - 4 entries
200 Free - 2 entries
200 IM - 1 entry
400 IM - 1 entry

Swimming against male peers, Thomas never won an event at an invitational meet or at the conference championships.

He placed 1st exactly 14 times in three seasons, 7 of those in the 1,000 Free, 1 in the 200 IM, and 6 in the 500 Free, all at dual meets (only one other team present) and once at a triangular (three teams).

He set one pool record in the 1000 free, his best event. He never won the 1000 at conference. He never qualified in any events for nationals.

(The 1000 is also not swum at NCAA championship meets.)

Moving to the women's, Thomas suddenly stopped swimming the 1000, again, his best event, and started swimming the 100 and 200 free, events he had never or rarely competed in before.

His individual "women's" entries are as follows:
1000 Free - 1
1650 Free - 1
500 Free - 7
100 Free - 7
200 Free - 9
200 MDR - 4
400 MDR - 2

Thomas only swam his best event, the 1000, and the 1650 once near the beginning of the season.

It's likely that his coaches switched him from these events to shorter distances because Thomas actually broke the school record in the 1000 OFF HIS 1650 SPLIT

Yes, he broke the school record and was 2 seconds shy of the conference record on a split from his 1650 (with 650 yards still left to go) close to the beginning of the season. Please understand how insane this is.

Thomas set a the women's school records in every freestyle event he swam: the 100, 200, 500, 1000, and 1650

He also set the Ivy league conference records in the 100, 200 and 500.

Despite only setting one men's pool record, Thomas set at least 26 "women's" records, some in events he had rarely or never even swum before.

This would be like an 800 runner suddenly switching to the 100 meter dash and immediately breaking records against sprinters who had training for it for years.

Despite never winning a conference title or qualifying for nationals even in his second-best event, the 500 free, against female athletes, Thomas not only qualified, but won the 500 and medaled in the 200 free and 100 free, and event he HAD NOT SWUM A SINGLE TIME against men.

And then, of course there are the negative splits. Instances where he swam latter splits faster than former, which is almost unheard of and shows he was almost certainly holding back on purpose.

Thomas's performance against women in the 500 put him in the top 11 fastest NCAA 500 "women's" swimmers of all time (now at at 13). His accolades prior to winning include a second-place finish at Ivy league championships and a fourth place finish at state in high school.

Here are the accomplishments of the other top 10 swimmers prior to their NCAA Championship 500 free title:

Oh, and he did all of this coming of a year-long hiatus due to the COVID 19 pandemic and the cancellation of the prior 2020-2021 season...