A female collegiate swimmer is lashing out at the nomination of transgender swimmer Lia Thomas to be the NCAA’s Woman of the Year.
Thomas, a man competing against women, shattered swimming records this year for the University of Pennsylvania, which earned him the nomination for the award.
University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, a nominee from her college, fired off some angry tweets at having to compete against a man for an award set aside for women.
“Being the real girl in that photo and also University of Kentucky’s nominee for NCAA WOTY, this is yet another slap in the face to women. First a female national title and now nominated for the pinnacle award in collegiate athletics. The @NCAA
has made this award worthless,” she tweeted.
“This award combines athletic performance with academics, service, and character. What character has Thomas shown other than sheer selfishness and entitlement? The disrespect and disregard for the other female athletes in Thomas’ interviews is eye opening,” she also wrote.
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This award combines athletic performance with academics, service, and character. What character has Thomas shown other than sheer selfishness and entitlement? The disrespect and disregard for the other female athletes in Thomas’ interviews is eye opening.
— Riley Gaines (@RileyGaines) July 16, 2022
Many agreed with her.
Penn nominated transgender swimmer Lia Thomas as their NCAA woman of the year. Hell of an accomplishment to be woman of the year after only being a woman for a couple of years. https://t.co/gW3acTQ1Jl
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) July 15, 2022
NCAA dubs “Lia” Thomas “woman” of the year. You have the laugh at the audacity of our current dystopia. Rest assured that the harder they push this stuff, the harder the pendulum will swing back. And it will swing back—sooner than you think.
— Allie Beth Stuckey (@conservmillen) July 16, 2022
UPenn must have forgotten that in order to qualify for the NCAA Woman of the Year award, one must actually be a woman.
There is nothing brave about competing against people whom you have a biological advantage over.
Shame on them for nominating Lia Thomas. pic.twitter.com/RNyEOGwLjs
— YAF (@yaf) July 15, 2022
We condemn the nomination of a male for @NCAA Woman of the Year. @pennathletics & @IvyLeague selection surrenders another accolade meant to celebrate female accomplishments. Women deserve fair competition and acknowledgement that the best collegiate female athletes are not male. https://t.co/mAeOASTt2r
— ICONS Women (@icons_women) July 16, 2022
In April, Gaines commented about how the NCAA has catered to Thomas while ignoring women, even in the smallest ways.
“Me and Lia just recently tied at the NCAA championships,” Gaines said on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
“And honestly, I think the NCAA handled everything extremely poorly, starting from when we finished, and I went behind the podium to collect my fifth-place trophy, and you know, they kind of blatantly told me that Lia would hold the fifth-place trophy and that I could pose with the sixth-place trophy for photos and would be mailed a fifth-place trophy in the mail.”
“And when I kind of questioned it, you know, I asked them, ‘Is there a reason why you’re giving Lia the trophy?’ He just explained to me that, ‘We’re giving it in chronological order.’ And I questioned him again, you know, what does that mean? We tied. What are we being chronological about?” she said.
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“He kind of blatantly said, ‘We’re just going to give the trophy to Lia. We respect and admire your swim, but Lia needs to hold the trophy.’ I was baffled really.”
Gaines said she and many other swimmers believe the situation with Thomas competing against women is unfair.
“But just speaking for them, it’s just totally wrong. And I know I can’t speak for everyone, but I am almost certain I’m speaking for a large majority of female athletes, that this is just not OK, and it’s not fair. And, you know, we’re dealing with something that’s completely out of our control when we’re racing, you know, biological males,” she said.
“Whether that be they have, you know, different lung capacities, their high, obviously, testosterone levels, whether you be on testosterone blockers or not, it doesn’t suppress, you know, going through puberty as a male, especially, you know, the one in question who swam three years as a male on UPenn. So it’s just completely unfair. And it’s a matter of equity, really.”
