Swimming Organization Moves to Halt Fabricated Statements Attributed to Star Athlete Mollie O’Callaghan
The national swimming federation has acted to stop described as “fabricated stories” and “false comments” linked to Olympic champion Mollie O’Callaghan concerning transgender athlete Lia Thomas.
Online Content Circulate False Statements
Remarks credited to O’Callaghan but not shared from her social media accounts has appeared in posts on Facebook, as well as on Twitter, and claimed the swimming star would refuse to compete in the 2028 LA Games if a trans athlete is permitted to race.
These words wrongly credited to O’Callaghan contained a provocative remark that “sharing a pool with Lia Thomas is truly an affront and a disgrace”.
Formal Statement from the Federation
Swimming Australia supported the gold medalist in a release titled with “fake quotes attributed to Australian team member Mollie O’Callaghan”.
“At present, there are fabricated quotes linked to team member Mollie O’Callaghan appearing on platform posts,” the organization stated this past Sunday.
“At no stage has O’Callaghan been interviewed and made statements on transgender athletes.
“Meta has been advised of the false information, and O’Callaghan and the federation have demanded the posts to be removed.”
Latest Developments and Background
Updates that contain the quote linked to O’Callaghan were still online on Facebook on the following day, while a platform official said that “we are reviewing the demand”.
Swimming Australia declined to make further comment.
American trans swimmer Lia Thomas is banned from racing in the women’s division under present World Aquatics regulations and was unable to challenge the regulations in the run-up to the Paris Olympics.
The international federation introduced guidelines in recent years which forbid anyone who has undergone “any phase of male development” from the women’s competition.
Regarding Mollie O’Callaghan
O’Callaghan is a five-fold Olympic gold medallist after beating teammate Ariarne Titmus in the 200m freestyle championship race at the Paris event along with participating in four winning relays.
The young champion earned a freestyle world championship crown to her accolades in Tokyo in the summer.
O’Callaghan was racing in a World Cup competition in Indiana last weekend and outpaced the opponents by nearly two seconds to take out the freestyle race in a record time of one minute 50.77 seconds.
