Wednesday, more than a dozen college athletes sued the NCAA, saying that letting transgender woman Lia Thomas participate at the national championships in 2022 violated their Title IX rights. Riley Gaines, a former UK swimmer, was one of those athletes.
It was filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta and talks about how shocked Gaines and the other swimmers were to find out they would have to share a locker room with Thomas at the finals in Atlanta. This book lists several races they swam in with Thomas. In the 200-yard final, Thomas and Gaines tied for fifth place, but Thomas was given the medal for fifth place.
Thomas swam to go to Pennsylvania. Before she changed her gender, she played for the men’s team at Penn.
Another plaintiff, Florida’s Tylor Mathieu, came in ninth place in the opening heats of the 500-meter freestyle. This meant that she was one spot away from swimming in the final, which Thomas went on to win. Thomas was the first openly transgender athlete to win a Division I title in any sport. He beat out three Olympic medalists to win the title. Mathieu didn’t make the final, so he didn’t get first-team All-American awards in that event.
Athletes from volleyball and track were also petitioners.
The claim said that the plaintiffs were “bringing this case to secure for future generations of women the promise of Title IX that is being denied them and other college women” by the NCAA.
“College sports are the premier stage for women’s sports in America, and while the NCAA does not comment on pending litigation, the Association and its members will continue to promote Title IX, make unprecedented investments in women’s sports and ensure fair competition in all NCAA championships,” the NCAA said in a blog post.
Some critics say that transgender athletes are better than cisgender women in competition. However, there is still not a lot of research on elite sports, and there is almost none on whether, say, a sophomore transgender girl has a clear advantage over her cisgender teammates or opponents.
The NCAA changed its rules about transgender athletes in 2022 to try to be more like the national sports governing bodies. This was done at the request of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.
Read More: Megyn Kelly Says It’s “Infuriating” and “Outrageous” That Biological Men Won the Women’s Championship.
The third part of the new policy will add standards from national and foreign sports governing bodies to the NCAA’s rules. It will start to be used during the 2024–25 school year.
In the case, the University of Georgia system is also named as a defendant since the 2022 championships were held at Georgia Tech, one of its schools. The lawsuit wants the NCAA to stop using its transgender eligibility rules at planned events in Georgia because they “harmed female athletes in violation of Title IX.”
Lawyers for the Georgia schools said they had not been given the case and would not say anything.
Read More:
🔺 Major sports title won by transgender woman.
🔺 Hailey Davidson, a transgender golfer, answers to her ban from the women’s professional tour.
🔺 Facts Check: Riley Gaines Won a $10 million “defamation lawsuit” against Whoopi Goldberg.
🔺 Florida’s medical boards have banned puberty blockers and hormone therapy for people under 18
🔺 Sadness, Violence, Suicide: Teen Girls Facing “Growing Wave” of Distress
