With NCAA swimming in Athens, plaintiffs aim at transgender policy
Two and half miles from where the NCAA Division I women's swimming & diving championships were held Friday on the University of Georgia campus, a group backing a lawsuit against the governing body spotlighted current and former college athletes they say were hurt by allowing transgender athletes to compete in women's sports.
They say that the NCAA's policy discriminates against women, violating Title IX.
“Ultimately, I believe in equality and fairness for athletes,” said former Kentucky swimmer Kaitlynn Wheeler, an 800 free relay runner-up in 2021. “This lawsuit isn't about me. …It's about the current student-athletes, the future generation of female athletes and really the future of women's sports.”
Penn's Lia Thomas, a trans swimmer who previously competed for the men's team, won the 500-yard free style at the NCAA championships in March 2022 at Georgia Tech.
One of the 16 plaintiffs of the lawsuit filed in federal court in Atlanta last week is Riley Gaines, another former Kentucky swimmer, who tied Thomas for fifth in the NCAA 200-freestyle in 2022.
The University System of Georgia and the University of Georgia, which will also host the 2025 SEC swimming championships, are among the defendants. USG said it won't comment on pending litigation.
The lawsuit is being funded by Independent Council on Women's Sports (ICONS). Some of the plaintiffs Friday spoke from a lectern that said “TAKE ON THE NCAA” with the url for the website with details on the lawsuit and a place to contribute. Video of the event at Live Wire was to be uploaded online.
Bill Bock, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, said there were “several” trans athletes competing this year in NCAA sports that got media attention.
“We also know and understand there are some that haven't been identified as biologically male and are competing,” he said.
Former Stanford tennis All-American Kim Jones, a co-founder of ICONS, said she would have loved to bring attention to the issue outside the Ramsey Center where the championship was held but getting a permit was too difficult.
Her daughter swam for Yale against Thomas.
She said the NCAA had two years to address the issue.
“You put us in a position where we had to say, you’ve got to be held accountable,” Jones said.
The lawsuit contends that locker rooms in the 2022 NCAA championships at Georgia Tech were designated as “unisex” to permit Thomas access which the complaint says caused female swimmers “stress, shame, humiliation and embarrassment.”
Wheeler said she’d like to ask NCAA president Charlie Baker whose wife played college sports and has daughters who played sports how it doesn’t make him upset that female athletes “are being violated in their own locker rooms, in their safe spaces. …I really don’t believe everyone in the NCAA supports their policy.”
Six swimmers from Division III Roanoke College are plaintiffs. They expressed concerns to the NCAA about competitive fairness and locker room use when a former member of the Roanoke men’s team joined the women’s team. The lawsuit contends they suffered “significant stress and emotional and mental anguish and lost time and money protesting.”
The transgender swimmer withdrew from the team.
In its “prayer for relief,” the plaintiffs are seeking that transgender athletes who competed be rendered ineligible and their awards, records and trophies to be reassigned.
The NCAA in a statement said: “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.”
Bock said the NCAA “has never made a consistent, equal investment in women’s sports and on this issue they’re causing dramatic harm for women.”
Athlete Ally, which aims to end homophobia and transphobia in sport, called the lawsuit “the latest effort to eliminate the ability of transgender athletes to exist in the same spaces as cisgender athletes, and to erode the autonomy of sport governing bodies to set evidence-based eligibility criteria as they see fit.”