Last week, during a complete sham of an award ceremony, the ESPY for the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage was presented to the United States Women’s National Soccer Team for their role in the contrived, propagandist, political theater known as the so-called “equal pay fight.”
The recipients of this award were supposed to have demonstrated significant strength “in the face of adversity, courage in the face of peril, and the willingness to stand up for their beliefs no matter what the cost.” The USWNT did none of these things. But do you know which athletes did? The anonymous University of Pennsylvania female swimmers who spoke out against Lia Thomas.
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Being among the first to break the story about Lia Thomas, the first to interview members of Penn’s female swim team, and a Penn alum who attended class with Thomas, I know firsthand the kind of intimidation and bullying the female swimmers faced. I am aware of the tactics the university used to weed out and silence the swimmers who anonymously spoke out against Thomas, and I know the guts, bravery, and courage it took to do so.
They were brave college women who stood in the face of unrelenting pressure yet dared to take a stand. Those swimmers, not the USWNT, were the ones who showed strength “in the face of adversity,” had courage “in the face of peril,” and had the fortitude and determination “to stand up for their beliefs no matter what the cost.”
They may have been anonymous, but they faced attacks, criticism, harassment, and all the other things the Left routinely claims no one should experience for expressing their beliefs. They faced intimidation from faculty members, school officials, some in the LGBTQ community, left-wing politicians, and even other athletes at the University of Pennsylvania.
They are even more heroic than Riley Gaines, who has become the de facto face of female athletes against transgender women competing in female sports. This isn’t to take anything away from Gaines, but it is important to differentiate because the Penn swimmers were the first to stand up courageously for their beliefs. Gaines only spoke up after her last race of the season and NCAA career. And while what happened to Gaines in the aftermath of her race that included Thomas was undoubtedly wrong and unfair, the female Penn swimmers were showing bravery months prior.
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Paula Scanlan came forward earlier this year as one of the swimmers who spoke out against Thomas. She deserves a ton of credit and all the accolades for taking a stand. However, Scanlan was not the only one who chose to have a voice.
The identity of the others may never be revealed as many of them are concerned with the kind of terror, harassment, and future retaliation they would get if their identities were ever revealed. Facing the wrath of a left-wing sociocultural, fanatical movement, these college-aged women, who had everything to lose if their identities became public, stood up for what was right. They are the athletes who really should have been awarded the ESPY for courage.