Awkward scenes in the locker room with trans swimmer using women’s facilities at college comp

A SWIMMER has revealed the “edgy’’ atmosphere inside the dressing room when transsexual swimmer Lia Thomas competed at America’s premier college competition, the NCAA swimming championships.

Riley Gaines, who competed against Thomas, said there was “extreme discomfort” because swimmers were not forewarned the transsexual swimmer would be using the women’s facilities.

Thomas, who was formerly known as Will Thomas, has not had gender reassignment surgery, but has been taking hormones in order to be able to compete against women.

This was before world swimming authority FINA introduced a rule banning trans athletes from the women’s category if they hadn’t transitioned before puberty. Thomas’ dominance at the NCAA championships prompted FINA to act.

Gaines told Fox News that the swimmers were not prepared for Thomas to be in the dressing room.

“That’s not something we were forewarned about, which I don’t think is right in any means, changing in a locker room with someone who has different parts,” Gaines said.

“So not only were we forced to race against a male, we were forced to change in the locker room with one. Then we’re sitting there not even knowing who to talk to, who to complain to, because this kind of all happened behind the scenes and very discreetly.”

Gaines said Thomas exploded on to the national circuit in late 2021 when a swimming website posted an update: “Lia Thomas, swimmer at UPenn, posts 1.41 200m freestyle, which is a very, very fast time.”

Two weeks before the national titles, the NCAA announced Thomas would compete with the females.

“I was just like, mind blown,’’ Gaines said, adding the mood dramatically changed after Thomas won on the first day. “That next day we came back and the mood had shifted to where people were mad,” Gaines said. “There were tears, these poor ninth and 17th-place finishers who missed out on being named an all-American.”

Gaines said administrators had forgotten that the women’s sports was a protected group. “The category was made because the playing field was not level by any means when you have them competing against men,” she said. “Obviously it was created to ensure that fairness and now we are kind of completely flipping that.”