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Swimming Australia has acted to suppress labeled as “false information” and “made-up statements” associated with Olympic champion Mollie O’Callaghan regarding transgender athlete Lia Thomas.

Online Posts Circulate Fake Statements

A comment linked to O’Callaghan but not published from her social media accounts has surfaced in content on Meta platform Facebook, as well as on Twitter, and suggested the swimming star would refuse to compete in the 2028 LA Games if a transgender swimmer is cleared to compete.

The quote wrongly credited to O’Callaghan contained a provocative remark that “competing in the same pool with Lia Thomas is absolutely an disgrace and a embarrassment”.

Formal Statement from the Federation

Swimming Australia stood by the star swimmer in a statement labeled with “fabricated comments attributed to Dolphin Mollie O’Callaghan”.

“There are currently false statements attributed to team member Mollie O’Callaghan appearing on online content,” the federation announced on Sunday.

“At no stage has O’Callaghan given an interview and made statements on trans swimmers.

“Meta has been advised of the fabricated stories, and O’Callaghan and Swimming Australia have asked the content to be taken down.”

Latest Developments and Context

Posts that feature the quote attributed to O’Callaghan were still circulating on Facebook on Monday, while a Meta spokesperson stated that “we are looking into the appeal”.

Swimming Australia did not offer additional statements.

American trans swimmer Lia Thomas is banned from competing in the female category under current World Aquatics rules and could not change the policies in the lead up to the Paris Olympics.

World Aquatics put in place regulations in 2022 which prohibit anyone who has undergone “any part of male development” from the women’s division.

About Mollie O’Callaghan

O’Callaghan is a five-fold gold medal winner after defeating fellow Australian Ariarne Titmus in the freestyle event championship race at the 2024 Paris Games along with contributing to four winning relays.

The young champion secured a freestyle world title to her achievements in Japan in the summer.

O’Callaghan was participating in a international short course meet in the United States recently and beat the competitors by almost two seconds to claim the freestyle race in a record time of 1:50.77.