Sports
OutKick attends Dodgers-sponsored awards show honoring trans swimmer Lia Thomas: Here’s what happened
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HOLLYWOOD – Trans swimmer Lia Thomas has resurfaced after largely disappearing from public view.
On Thursday night in Los Angeles, the former UPenn swimmer, born William Thomas, arrived at the Serra on Vine, wearing a purple dress and stilettos — standing about 6-foot-5 — to accept the “Voice of Inspiration Award” at the 2025 Violet Visionary Awards.
The event, organized by the nonprofit Rainbow Labs, was sponsored in part by Los Angeles sports organizations such as the Dodgers and LA Football Club.
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Penn Quakers swimmer Lia Thomas finishes eighth in the 100 freestyle at the NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 19, 2022. (Brett Davis/USA TODAY Sports)
Leading up to Thomas’ speech, a mention of the Dodgers’ sponsorship drew light applause from the crowd, though no one from the team spoke during the program.
LAFC, Dodgers Among Those Backing Thomas And LGBT Activists
After mingling with the crowd and two drag performances, Lia Thomas took the stage to accept the Voice of Inspiration Award and proceeded to double down on finding purpose in trans activism.
But before that, a video montage played about Thomas, tracing the path from competing on the men’s team as William Thomas, to entering the women’s competition in 2022 as Lia Thomas.
Thomas was portrayed as an athlete fighting for acceptance while facing backlash.
“Incredible shout out to everybody at Rainbow Labs for bringing me here and everybody and putting this all together,” Thomas started.
Thomas, 26, accepted the “Voice of Inspiration Award” at the 2025 Violet Visionary Awards in Los Angeles on Thursday night. (Alejandro Avila/OutKick)
“It makes me very emotional because I remember all too well not that long ago being 18 and just realizing that I’m trans.”
Thomas, 26, continued, “And feeling so excited at the prospect of being able to be who I am, but feeling so terrified to take those steps because I didn’t know any other trans people. I didn’t — I barely knew what being trans meant.
“Being open and out in myself felt like this impossible mountain to climb, and I didn’t know if I had the strength to do it.”
Thomas credited having trans mentors who helped the swimmer reconcile a trans identity with athletics.
Thomas said, “It’s only because of so many amazing, amazing trans mentors that I was able to find that strength and that courage to go out and be myself and finally reconcile my ‘transness’ and my swimmer identity and be able to compete as a now trans woman.”
Lia Thomas Calls Trans Platform ‘My Purpose’
After Thomas joined the competition, female athletes, including OutKick’s Riley Gaines, spoke up to denounce men playing in women’s sports.
During the 2024 campaign trail, then-President-elect Donald Trump proved to be a big supporter of Gaines and other women, raising concerns about competing against men.
Their influence led to Trump’s executive order banning biological males from competing in women’s sports.
The president even paused federal funding to the University of Pennsylvania over allowing Thomas to compete with women, though eventually UPenn became the third school to reject the president’s funding conditions.
“And I’m so grateful for them — for those people and those mentors — and I’m so happy that organizations like Rainbow Labs exist,” Thomas added, saying people reached out on social media with “messages of violence.”
Thomas, 26, accepted the “Voice of Inspiration Award” at the 2025 Violet Visionary Awards in Los Angeles on Thursday night. ( Alejandro Avila/OutKick)
“If I had had an organization like that as a kid to give me the knowledge and language to describe my transness, how important that would have been. Because I faced a lot of harassment. I got a lot of messages of violence against me in my Instagram comments and DMs. I didn’t know what to do.”
Speakers throughout the night cast LGBT Americans as living under oppression and celebrated transgender-identifying people as the event’s heroes.
Nearly 70 percent of Americans oppose transgender athletes competing in women’s sports, and Thomas’ inclusion has also sparked controversy over allowing men to share women’s locker rooms.
Thomas remains undeterred, even after all the controversy, calling a platform as an influential trans figure “my purpose.”
EX-UPENN SWIMMER LIA THOMAS TO RECEIVE ‘VOICE OF INSPIRATION’ AWARD AT DODGERS-SPONSORED EVENT
Penn transgender swimmer Lia Thomas speaks to her coach after winning the 500-meter freestyle during an NCAA college swimming meet with Harvard at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Jan. 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)
“But I owe so much to those mentors before me that it sort of was clear that I had to be that next beacon in a line of torches going back hundreds of years of trans people. That was my purpose. That was what I was here to do,” Thomas stated.
“And so to be able to be that next light for people is an honor I can’t describe. It means more than anything. And I’m so grateful for the opportunity to do that. And so thank you all so much.”
Since Thomas’ inclusion in collegiate women’s swimming (presided over by the NCAA), women’s rights activists like Riley Gaines — having competed against Thomas — have called out the loss of opportunities and awards for women due to the inclusion of trans athletes, which networks like ESPN have promoted.
Lia Thomas Was Quiet, But Won’t Go Away
As more people spoke up against Thomas and similar cases, like trans volleyball player Blaire Fleming, Thomas started to lose some of the favor awarded by the media.
The tone of the evening reflected an effort to move mainstream American culture toward a fuller embrace of LGBT identity and activism.
Also speaking at the event, on behalf of an LA Football Club group, spokeswoman Daisy Chavez shared a commitment to supporting “queer folks” within the Los Angeles community.
“We are a community of queer fans, local leaders, supporters, and activists of the Los Angeles Football Club. And if you don’t know, we follow sports because we’ve always been here. We’ve been athletes, we’ve been fans, we’ve been lovers of the sports.
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“And so our presence with this club reminds not just the club, the community, but the world that we’ve always been here. And so we cheer, full of joy and love for our local community, but also we represent for our queer folks, and we’re so proud of being there every step of the way.”
Once all the awards were presented — one also went to a gender-nonconforming trans female named “Alok” — the event ended with a stripper show.
For an evening devoted to inspiration, the show’s final acts offered a strikingly different kind of message.
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Barcelona midfielder Aitana Bonmatí will be out for five months after undergoing surgery on a broken leg on Tuesday, the Catalan club have confirmed.
Bonmatí, 27, fractured her fibula in Spain training over the weekend and returned to Barcelona immediately to begin her recovery.
“Bonmatí has undergone successful surgery on a fractured fibula in her left leg,” Barça announced in a short statement on Tuesday.
“The procedure was performed by Dr. Antoni Dalmau at Hospital Barcelona under the supervision of the club’s medical services. The expected recovery time is around five months.”
The three-time Ballon d’Or winner picked up the injury on Sunday as Spain prepared for Tuesday’s UEFA Women’s Nations League final second leg against Germany.
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She had initially wanted to stay with the Spain camp to support the team in their quest to retain the trophy, but was advised to return to Barcelona for treatment.
On Friday, she had played in the first leg in Germany, which ended in a goalless draw.
Bonmatí will now miss the majority of what remains of the club season, although there is a chance she could return for the run in.
The Champions League final, should Barça get there, is scheduled to take place in Oslo on May 22, with the final round of Liga F matches not set to take place until a week later.
The loss of Bonmatí complicates Barça’s options in the middle park, especially in the short-term, with both Patri Guijarro and Kika Nazareth also unlikely to feature again this calendar year due to injuries.
In the meantime, Laia Aleixandri will continue to push up from defence alongside Alexia Putellas, with youngsters Vicky López, Sydney Schertenleib and Clara Serrajordi set to compete for the final place in the middle of the park.
BYU men’s basketball star Kennard Davis returned from a two-game suspension Thursday after a DUI arrest earlier this month, scoring 18 points and adding five rebounds in the Cougars’ 72-62 win over Miami.
The forward played 32 minutes as BYU improved to 5-1 after winning in the Terry’s Chocolate ESPN Events invitational in Florida. Davis, who is averaging 9.0 points and connecting on 50% of his 3-point attempts, hadn’t played since Nov. 8.
Miami fell to 5-2.
He was arrested earlier this month after an accident that preceded his arrest on suspicion of DUI and possession of marijuana. He was treated for minor injuries. In his first court appearance, Davis pleaded not guilty.
The arrest threatened to complicate his career at BYU because the school’s honor code bans the abuse of alcohol and narcotics. A violation of that honor code can result in expulsion.
But Davis, whom BYU coach Kevin Young has called one of the top defenders he has ever coached, was back on the court for a Cougars team that has national title aspirations.
A former England international soccer player was arrested at Stansted Airport on Sunday on suspicion of attempted rape of a former partner.
ESPN has confirmed the identity of the individual, who cannot be named for legal reasons.
Essex Police confirmed to ESPN that the man has been bailed until “late February 2026” pending further inquiries.
A police spokesperson said in a statement: “A man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted rape and has been bailed to a date in late February 2026 while we continue our enquiries.”
The man was stopped at a passport control point at Stansted, as first reported by The Sun Newspaper. The complaint is believed to have been made by a former partner several weeks ago.
Barcelona confirm Bonmatí out for five months after surgery
Sean Penn’s charge shakes the Academy as boss breaks silence
BYU’s Davis scores 18 in return from 2-game ban
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