Riley Gaines

You and I both know that that doesn't happen.

They're two totally different systems.

But that's what we were seeing in this person.

So I'm scratching my head.

Right.

I'm talking to my coaches, my teammates.

Who is this person?

We had no idea.

And we continue to stay in the dark until an article came out.

And in this article, very briefly disclosed in a blip of a sentence as if we were really supposed to just read right over it.

It says Leah Thomas is formerly Will Thomas and swam three years on the men's team at University of Pennsylvania before deciding to switch to the women's team.

And so when I read this, of course, I was shocked, naturally.

But really, it was kind of like the sense of relief that I felt.

Because at this point, I went to look up who Will Thomas was.

Because admittedly, I was curious.

You know, was this a lateral movement?

Someone who went from ranking amongst the best of the men to now continuing to rank amongst the best of the women?

which is, of course, not what we saw, right?

We saw that this was a mediocre man, and that's generous, at best ranking 462nd in the nation the year prior when competing against the men.

But...