ATLANTA – Former Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines was among more than a dozen college athletes who filed a lawsuit against the NCAA on Thursday, accusing it of violating their Title IX rights by allowing Lia Thomas to compete in the national championships in 2022.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, details the shock Gaines and other swimmers felt when they learned they would have to share a locker room with Thomas at the championships in Atlanta. It documents a series of races in which they swam with Thomas, including the 200-yard final in which Thomas and Gaines tied for fifth place, but Thomas, not Gaines, received the fifth-place trophy.
Another claimant, Tylor Mathieu of Florida, finished ninth in the preliminary heats of the 500 freestyle, leaving him one spot short of swimming in the finals that Thomas would win. Thomas was the first openly transgender athlete to win a Division I title in any sport, finishing ahead of three Olympic medalists in the championship. By not making the finals, Mathieu was denied first-team All-American honors in that event.
Other plaintiffs included volleyball and track athletes.
The lawsuit says the plaintiffs “bring this case to assure future generations of women of the promise of Title IX that the NCAA denies them and other college women.”
The NCAA declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Critics maintain that transgender athletes have an advantage over cisgender women in competition, although comprehensive research on elite athletics is still lacking and is virtually nonexistent when it comes to determining whether, for example, a college sophomore transgender woman has a clear advantage over their cisgender opponents or teammates.
In 2022, the NCAA followed the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee's lead and revised its policies on the participation of transgender athletes to try to align with national sports governing bodies.
The third phase of the revised policy adds standards from national and international sports governing bodies to NCAA rules and is scheduled to be implemented for the 2024-25 school year.
The lawsuit also names the University of Georgia system as a defendant because one of its schools, Georgia Tech, hosted the 2022 championships. The lawsuit seeks to block the NCAA from employing its transgender eligibility policies “that negatively impact female athletes.” in violation of Title IX” at upcoming events in Georgia.
Representatives of Georgia schools said they had not received the lawsuit and would not comment.
