Sixteen female athletes have sued the NCAA to ban transgender women from participating in women’s sports.
According to Free Pressthe case centers on Leah Thomas, a swimmer who competed as a man at the University of Pennsylvania for three years before switching to women.
Thomas set records throughout the swimming season, ultimately winning the 2022 NCAA Championships in the 500-yard freestyle.
The lawsuit asks the NCAA to “reassign” awards won by trans athletes to the biological women who would otherwise have won them, and to “reassign” awards won by trans athletes to biological women who would otherwise receive them, and to “reassign them to the biological women who would otherwise receive them.” and emotional distress, distress and anxiety, costs and other damages.” for the defendant’s tortious acts. ”
In addition to former Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, who has publicly said she did not receive a trophy after tying with Thomas in the NCAA championship race, other plaintiffs include swimmers Kylie Arons, Katie Blankenship; Reka Gyorgy, Juliana Moreau, Lily Mullens, Kate Pearson, Carter Satterfield and Caitlin Wheeler.
In addition to 12 swimmers, the plaintiffs included one volleyball player, one tennis player, and two track and field athletes.
The suit alleges that biological males who have passed puberty have an inherent advantage in athletic performance that “women cannot achieve without doping.”
The lawsuit alleges that the NCAA violated the 14th Amendment by allowing Thomas to use the women’s locker room during her competition by “destroying a safe space for women in the women’s locker room.”
The complaint alleges that a “naked male with complete penis was forced to undress in front of a non-consensual female college student” and that “an unwilling female college athlete unwittingly or unwillingly exposed his naked body to the male… “This will result in women losing their constitutional rights.” For the privacy of your body. ”
Former North Carolina State University swimmer Kylie Arons told the Free Press that she had to change in a “warehouse closet” at the NCAA Championships because she didn’t want to take her clothes off in front of Thomas.
“I was literally racing against American and Olympic gold medalists and changing clothes in the shed at this elite level event,” Arons told the magazine. “I felt that my privacy and safety were being violated in the locker room.”
Former Kentucky swimmer Caitlin Wheeler remembered Thomas walking past him shirtless after changing into a bathing suit.
“In my 18-year career, I had never seen a man changing in the locker room. I immediately felt the need to protect myself,” Wheeler said. “I could feel the discomfort of the other girls there.”
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Georgia, the site of the 2022 NCAA Championships.
