Swimming Australia takes on Meta over faux quotes attributed to Kyle Chalmers, Mollie O’Callaghan

Swimming Australia has been pressured to take motion after false quotes attributed to Kyle Chalmers appeared on Meta social media platforms.

Chalmers is the second Australian swimmer to have quotes attributed to them — quotes had been additionally attributed to Mollie O’Callaghan on October 12.

The feedback relate to LGBT and transgender athletes, together with American Lia Thomas.

Swimming Australia has requested that the quotes be eliminated by Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.

“There are currently fabricated quotes attributed to Dolphin Kyle Chalmers appearing on social media,” a Swimming Australia assertion stated.

“Kyle Chalmers has never been interviewed by Swim Hub or Swim Aquatics and additionally has never provided commentary on LGBT or transgender athletes.

“Meta was first suggested of the faux information involving Australian swimmers two weeks in the past.

The posts regarding Chalmers seem to have been deleted as of Thursday morning (AEDT), however the posts regarding O’Callaghan’s false quotes are nonetheless on the location.

The posts advised that Australia would boycott the Olympics in Los Angeles if Thomas was allowed to compete and stated O’Callaghan had the backing of the Australian Sports Commission.

“The Australian Sports Commission confirms it has never made any such statement,” a spokesperson advised AAP FactCheck earlier this week.

Swimming Australia famous that O’Callaghan has “at no stage” supplied commentary or been interviewed about transgender athletes.

In 2022, Thomas turned the primary overtly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I nationwide championship, having received the ladies’s 500-yard freestyle whereas competing for the University of Pennsylvania.

Soon after that World Aquatics banned transgender swimmers from competing in ladies’s races, with tips saying no athlete who has undergone “any part of male puberty” can compete within the feminine class.

Thomas misplaced a authorized battle in opposition to the ban in 2024.

In February this yr US President Donald Trump banned transgender ladies from competing in ladies’s sport after signing an government order.

Days afterwards the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights introduced an investigation into the University of Pennsylvania for violating Title IX by “denying women an equal opportunity to participate in sports”.

Thomas was named particularly.

The University of Pennsylvania added a footnote to Thomas’s data and penned an apology to former college students.