MSNBC’s Hallie Jackson took a break from Ukraine coverage towards the end of her Thursday show to hype the “potentially history-making night” to come as transgender swimming Lia Thomas prepared to compete in the NCAA swimming championships -- which Thomas did win later in the day. Together with activist Chris Mosier, the duo demanded Thomas be celebrated for making it to the championships.
After touting the historic nature of the situation, Jackson asked Mosier to “Talk a little about what's at stake tonight.”
Mosier actually began by giving a rather bland answer about the importance of the night to Thomas personally, but that others already have their predetermined “angry or happy” reactions.
However, one of those with a predetermined reaction was Jackson, who wondered what the big deal was: “There have, there’s been criticism of her participation, there, I think, were according to ESPN, some very small protests outside like less than a couple dozen people, but there’s also one competitor who said she had no problem swimming against Lia.”
Jackson obviously cherry-picked her sample of Thomas’s competitors to fit her preferred narrative, because there have plenty of reports that her teammates resent having to share the same locker room as Thomas and compete at such a biological disadvantage.
She then tossed the conversation back to Mosier by wondering if such non-swimming matters make Thomas’s story even more compelling, “That has all got to play into the athleticism piece of this too, like the actual competition part, right? There's so much out of the pool that Lia Thomas is having to manage, too.”
Mosier agreed and admonished the media for not celebrating Thomas enough:
Yeah and let's just take a moment and I would love to do it here on this show because it hasn’t been done in the media very much to celebrate Lia Thomas and to celebrate all the athletes that have made it to the championship, but Lia has done so in, put in the center of, as you said, controversy around the globe with people who have opinions whether they're involved in sport or not. So, the way that this young woman has handled the criticism, the media attention, while trying to graduate school, while trying to succeed in her sport has been incredible and she deserves to be celebrated for that.
Thomas went from being the 462nd ranked male swimmer to the number one ranked female swimmer and later on Thursday would go on to win the national championship. It doesn’t take an advanced biology or anatomy and physiology degree to figure why and that is not a cause for celebration.
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Here is a transcript for the March 17 show:
MSNBC
Hallie Jackson Reports
3:51 PM ET
HALLIE JACKSON: A potentially history-making night coming up in the NCAA women’s swimming and diving championships because the University of Pennsylvania swimmer, Lia Thomas, is set to compete, putting the trans swimmer at the center of another round of controversy. So far, no openly trans athlete has ever become a D1 national champion, but Thomas has more than a shot at tonight’s event, the 500-yard freestyle. She’s got two more swims over the next few days too.
I want to bring in now transgender athlete, activist, and founder of transathlete.com, Chris Mosier. Chris, it’s good to have you back on the show. Good afternoon to you.
CHRIS MOSIER: Great to be with you. Thank you.
JACKSON: Talk a little about what's at stake tonight.
MOSIER: Well for Lia, obviously it’s what she’s been training for her entire career and I think it’s a very personal matter for her and then for the larger sports community, you know, I think this is the moment that people have been looking for. They want to see a trans athlete succeed at this level, and, or they don't want to see a trans athlete succeed at this level and we'll have the opportunity to find out tonight what happens. I think either way, whether Lia wins or doesn't win, people have pretty much made up their mind about their own opinions on this matter and they're just waiting to see how angry or happy they will be at the end of the day.
JACKSON: It’s an interesting point. You know, I’m sure you’ve seen, listen you’ve been on the show before, we’ve covered this a lot on this show. There have, there’s been criticism of her participation, there, I think, were according to ESPN, some very small protests outside like less than a couple dozen people, but there’s also one competitor who said she had no problem swimming against Lia. That has all got to play into the athleticism piece of this too, like the actual competition part, right? There's so much out of the pool that Lia Thomas is having to manage, too.
MOSIER: Yeah and let's just take a moment and I would love to do it here on this show because it hasn’t been done in the media very much to celebrate Lia Thomas and to celebrate all the athletes that have made it to the championship, but Lia has done so in, put in the center of, as you said, controversy around the globe with people who have opinions whether they're involved in sport or not. So, the way that this young woman has handled the criticism, the media attention, while trying to graduate school, while trying to succeed in her sport has been incredible and she deserves to be celebrated for that.
