Australian Swimming Organization Acts to Halt Fake Quotes Attributed to Star Athlete Mollie O’Callaghan

The national swimming federation has taken steps to suppress labeled as “false information” and “fabricated quotes” attributed to Olympic champion Mollie O’Callaghan concerning transgender athlete Lia Thomas.

Online Content Circulate False Claims

A statement linked to O’Callaghan but not shared from her social media accounts has appeared in content on Meta platform Facebook, as well as on Twitter, and suggested the elite athlete would boycott in the 2028 LA Games if a transgender athlete is allowed to compete.

The statement wrongly credited to O’Callaghan contained a controversial comment that “sharing a pool with Lia Thomas is really an insult and a embarrassment”.

Formal Statement from the Federation

Swimming Australia stood by the gold medalist in a announcement headlined with “fabricated comments linked to Australian team member Mollie O’Callaghan”.

“At present, there are made-up comments credited to Dolphin Mollie O’Callaghan circulating on platform posts,” the organization stated this past Sunday.

“Never has O’Callaghan given an interview and provided commentary on transgender athletes.

“Meta has been advised of the false information, and O’Callaghan and the federation have demanded the content to be deleted.”

Current Status and Background

Content that contain the quote credited to O’Callaghan were still visible on the platform on the following day, while a platform official commented that “we are investigating the demand”.

The federation refused to give further comment.

United States transgender athlete Lia Thomas is banned from participating in the women’s events under current international swimming regulations and failed to overturn the policies in the period before the Paris Olympics.

The international federation enacted guidelines in recent years which forbid anyone who has undergone “any stage of male development” from the female category.

Regarding 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.

O’Callaghan secured a freestyle world championship crown to her honours in Japan in the summer.

O’Callaghan was participating in a World Cup event in Indiana recently and beat the opponents by a significant margin to win the women’s 200m freestyle in a new best of 1:50.77.