Former Olympic decathlete and gold medal-winner Caitlyn Jenner declared that transgender swimmer Lia Thomas was not the rightful winner of the women’s NCAA Championships, instead naming second place Emma Weyant as the true victor. 

Thomas, who competed for three years as a male collegiate swimmer at the University of Pennsylvania before beginning hormone therapy in 2019, stormed to the 500-yard freestyle title on Thursday with a time of 4:33:24 – more than a second-and-a-half ahead of Weyant.

Jenner last night said that recognizing University of Virginia swimmer and Olympian Weyant, 20, as the true winner was just ‘common sense’, after previously hitting out at the NCAA’s decision to let Thomas, 22, compete against biological females.

Replying to a tweet from Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who also refused to acknowledge Thomas’ victory, Jenner declared: ‘[Emma] is the rightful winner!

‘It’s not transphobic or anti-trans, it’s COMMON SENSE!’

Earlier this month, Jenner also said its ‘just not fair’ to allow biological boys to compete in women’s sports.

Jenner, who came out as a trans woman in 2015 and was previously named Bruce, won a gold medal and set a world record in the men’s decathlon at the 1976 Olympic Games. 

DailyMail.com has attempted to contact Weyant for comment. 

Weyant was met with wild applause as she accepted her second-place medal on Thursday, and social media blew up with claims that she was the ‘real winner.’ 

Just moments later Thomas, accepting her first-place honors for the victory, was met with near silence. 

Now, in Florida – Weyant’s home state – she will be recognized as the first-place winner, according to governor DeSantis, who wrote that the ‘accomplished woman’ logged the ‘fastest time among all women swimmers.’ 

In an official proclamation announcing Weyant as the NCAA championship winner, he said: ‘A male identifying as a woman was allowed to compete in and was declared the winner of the race by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and Emma was determined to have come in second place.’ 

He also said the NCAA’s ‘actions served to erode opportunities for women athletes and perpetuate a fraud against women athletes as well as the public at large,’ arguing that Thomas’ ‘biological sex’ means the swimmer has an inherent advantage over the competition.  

‘Women have fought for decades to have equal opportunities in athletics, and it is wrong to allow ideology to erode these opportunities as is happening in other states, and the preservation of women-specific athletics teams or sports is necessary to promote equality of athletic opportunities,’ DeSantis said in the proclamation. 

Last year, Florida signed a bill into law called The Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, which became effective on the first day of Pride month, that banned trans-female athletes from competing in public high school and college sports, WFTS reported at the time. 

The bill recognized athletes’ genders based on the biological sex that is listed on their birth certificate.  

‘She’s been a superstar her whole career,’ DeSantis said at a press conference on Tuesday, ahead of signing the proclamation. 

‘To compete at that level is very, very difficult. And you don’t just roll out of bed and do it. That takes grit. That takes determination.’

‘She had the fastest time of any woman in college athletics. Now the NCAA is basically taking efforts to destroy women’s athletics. They’re trying to undermine the integrity of the competition, crowning somebody else the women’s champion, and we think that’s wrong,’ 

The Florida governor went on to say that the NCAA was putting ‘ideology over biology’ and that he thought ‘some people are just afraid to speak out.’ 

‘In Florida, we’re going to try to be very clear to do things like that when they try to undermine the integrity of competition, when they try to counteract the ability of women to realize their dreams. We’re going to speak out about that,’ he said at a press conference. 

Weyant has not publicly commented on Thomas’ win or DeSantis’ proclamation. 

Thomas meanwhile became the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I championship. 

Despite enduring some boos while she received her trophy on Thursday, the controversial swimmer said she tries to ‘ignore’ the backlash.

‘I try to ignore it as much as I can, I try to focus on my swimming what I need to do to get ready for my races and I just try to block out everything else,’ said Thomas after the race, when asked by ESPN about the response. 

‘It means the world to be here, to be with two of my best friends and teammates and be able to compete.’ 

The UPenn swimmer did not place on the podium again for any of her other races. 

Thomas was competing under new NCAA rules that required her to complete a year of testosterone suppressants – a process that started when she began to transition during the pandemic. 

However, the rules will likely change come next season – with transgender females having to undergo three years of testosterone suppression in order to compete against biological women. 

The NCAA ruled it would be wrong to implement the new rules mid-season, thus allowing Thomas to complete her final season at UPenn.

Parents and fellow swimmers have long spoken out about their disagreement with Thomas competing at all after she competed as a male for the first three years of her collegiate career. 

The swimmer, who went by Will before transitioning, was ranked in the low 400s in men’s swimming, but skyrocketed to first on the women’s side. 

Meanwhile, a Virginia Tech swimmer who claimed she was bumped out of the NCAA finals by Thomas has publicly blasted the collegiate sports authority for letting the controversial athlete compete in the women’s division. 

Hungarian-born swimmer Reka Gyorgy penned a letter to the NCAA arguing that although she is convinced Thomas is ‘no different than me or any other D1 swimmer’ who was striving to be the best in her field, allowing her to compete is ‘disrespectful’ to biologically female swimmers. 

She wrote: ‘I swam the 500 free at NCAA’s on March 17 2022, where I got 17th, which means I didn’t make it back to the finals and was first alternative. I’m a 5th year senior, I have been top 16 and top 8 before and I know how much of a privilege it is to make finals at a meet this big.

‘This is my last college meet ever and I feel frustrated. It feels like that final spot was taken away from me because of the NCAA’s decision to let someone who is not a biological female compete. I know you could say I had the opportunity to swim faster and make the top 16, but this situation makes it a bit different and I can’t help but be angry or sad.’

‘It hurts me, my team and the other women in the pool. One spot was taken away from the girl who got 9th in the 500 free and didn’t make it back to the A final preventing her from being all American.’

‘Every event that transgender athletes competed in was one spot away from biological females throughout the meet.’ 

The Hungarian Olympian spoke kindly of Thomas and her efforts, but lashed the NCAA for putting both of them in what she said was an untenable position.

Gyorgy said: ‘She has pushed herself to the limit to be the best athlete she could be. She has sacrificed family vacations and holidays for a competition. She has pushed herself to the limit to be the best athlete she could be,’ Gyorgy, 25, wrote. 

‘She is doing what she is passionate about and deserves that right. On the other hand, I would like to critique the NCAA rules that allow her to compete against us, who are biologically women.’ 

Throughout the NCAA competition, Thomas has been a massive topic of conversation, prompting comments from celebrity athletes like tennis legend Martina Navratilova, as well as Jenner.

In an interview with Fox News last week, Jenner slammed the NCAA directly for allowing the trans athlete to compete. 

Although she said she had ‘no problem’ with Thomas herself, Jenner also said the 22-year-old ‘was taking it easy’ in the 500-yard race in order to not break Katie Ledecky’s record – which Thomas was nine seconds short of. 

Earlier this month, Jenner also said its ‘just not fair’ to allow biological boys to compete in women’s sports.   

‘I don’t think biological boys should compete in women’s sports – we have to protect women’s sports,’ Caitlyn said. ‘That’s the bottom line.’ 

Pink News slammed the reality TV star, calling her ‘anti-trans’ for her rhetoric on the UPenn swimmer. 

However, Jenner didn’t shy away from the controversy and responded back on Twitter, writing: ‘No, I just had the balls to stand up for women and girls in sports,’ she wrote. 

Another high-profile athlete Martina Navratilova, who is considered one of the greatest tennis players of all-time, spoke out amid Thomas’s historic victory on Thursday. 

She suggested transgender women who are competing against biological women should have an asterisk next to their wins. 

‘It’s not about excluding transgender women from winning ever,’ the 65-year-old said. ‘But it is about not allowing them to win when they were not anywhere near winning as men.’

‘You try to keep it as close as possible to what it would had been, were you born in the female biological body in the first place,’ she said.

‘And even saying that, people take exception to – biological female. People don’t even want to use those words.

‘I don’t know what else to say. Other than that.’

On Friday, a British campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen, who lobbies against ‘woke’ policies on transgender people, went viral after a row in the stands during Thomas’ swimming competition, where she told a woke spectator that the 22-year-old is ‘not a woman.’ 

Keen, who was in the stands, can be heard telling a male spectator: ‘Is he the same as the other girls in the pool?’

The man replies: ‘Every body is different.’

Keen says: ‘No. Are you saying he doesn’t have male organs? I’m a woman – that is not a woman. Do you have ovaries? I’m a woman, and that is not a woman.’

The man counters: ‘Let me ask you, are you a biologist?’

Keen replied: ‘Oh my God – don’t be ridiculous. I’m not a vet, but I know what a dog is. You rely on stupid arguments, because you don’t have an argument.’