Mar 13
World Aquatics
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World Aquatics
July 2025
Leon Marchand sets stunning World Record in Men’s 200m Individual Medley in Singapore at the World Aquatics Championships 2025
Marchand surged ahead of the previous record pace during the backstroke leg and extended his lead over the breaststroke. By the finish, he had shattered American Ryan Lochte’s long-standing World Record of 1:54.00 — set 14 years ago at the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai — by 1.31 seconds. (x)
summer mcintosh is a freak (affectionate)
Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas has lost her legal case against World Aquatics and any hopes of making next month’s Paris Olympics
Sean Ingle at The Guardian:
The US swimmer Lia Thomas, who rose to global prominence after becoming the first transgender athlete to win a NCAA college title in March 2022, has lost a legal case against World Aquatics at the court of arbitration for sport – and with it any hopes of making next month’s Paris Olympics. The 25-year-old also remains barred from swimming in the female category after failing to overturn rules introduced by swimming’s governing body in the summer of 2022, which prohibit anyone who has undergone “any part of male puberty” from the female category.
Thomas had argued that those rules should be declared “invalid and unlawful” as they were contrary to the Olympic charter and the World Aquatics constitution. However, in a 24-page decision, the court concluded that Thomas was “simply not entitled to engage with eligibility to compete in WA competitions” as someone who was no longer a member of USA swimming. The news was welcomed by World Aquatics, who hailed it as “a major step forward in our efforts to protect women’s sport”. “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,” it added. World Aquatics introduced its new rules after Thomas beat Olympic silver medalist Emma Weyant by 1.75sec to win NCAA gold in the women’s 500-yard freestyle in 2022.
[...] While it is understood that World Aquatics was prepared to argue the merits of the scientific evidence at Cas, the hearing solely focused on whether Thomas, who is no longer a member of USA swimming, was allowed to challenge its rules. On Wednesday it ruled that Thomas had no standing to sue World Aquatics’ transgender policy, with a key paragraph stating: “The panel concludes that since the Athlete is not entitled to participate in ‘Elite Event’ within the meaning of USA Swimming Policy, let alone to compete in a WA competition, which occurs upon registration with WA prior to a competition or upon setting a performance which leads to a request for registration as WA world record, she is simply not entitled to engage with eligibility to compete in WA competitions.
Any hope of Lia Thomas appearing in the 2024 Paris Olympics has been dashed, as the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that Thomas had no legal standing to sue World Aquatics' policy banning trans women from their women's competitions since she was no longer a member of USA Swimming.
See Also:
Outsports: Lia Thomas loses legal challenge over World Aquatics trans ban
might be controversial but … let’s talk about video reviews for a quick second. the women’s 200 IM semifinals were a shitshow. it was what it was. but as with all video reviews in sport, officials need to be ✨c o n s i s t e n t✨ because the integrity (though, debatable how much integrity there is within FINA …) of the sport for those who watch and those with aspirations to compete at an international level, will be decimated.
i mean if we really look at what kaylee was DQ’d for in semifinal 1, you can’t go past horizontal, right?
borderline but i see where the officials are coming from. this one of them turns u gotta practice and practice to get right, let alone perfect in order to not got past the horizontal, make sure ur close enough to the wall and all the jazz.
was there consistency in the calls made by officials? nah bro. walsh’s turn below shows hers was further past the line of horizontal AND in the lane next to mckeown.
angle is different, but her hand in so much further past her head, the back hole of her racing suit is out of the water, and look at how rotated her hips are. was this a DQ? nope. hmm interesting 🤔
shall we look at her turn from the final?
oof!! worse!! uncalled!! and wins a silver medal!! however. the calls were what they were. alex walsh clearly has the speed to be there and the talent. of course she needs to ensure she’s following the rules, but we’re not here to diss her. we can’t call out intention without admission, or consistent evidence of her pushing to see where the line is.
i’m here to call out the officials. swimmers and viewers are at your mercy. you are meant to be the experts, the ones to catch both obvious infringements, and the unintentional / accidental ones. without consistency, clear expectations and communication - swimmers lose faith in the system, fans lose faith in the system, and we end up like football’s VAR (👀🫣).
i think i’m just here to start the conversation bc it irks me that if FINA are gonna implement this (which is already happening), officials need to be held to a standard which ensures consistency across the men’s and women’s competitions, across heats, and across meets bc if it’s not … why bother and just go back to eyeballing it y’all.
World Aquatics
World Aquatics