A group of 16 current and former university female athletes sued in Georgia on Thursday, alleging that the transgender policy of the NCAA is discriminatory against women.
Riley Gaines, a previous Kentucky swimmer, tied for fifth place in the 200-yard freestyle at the 2022 NCAA Championships hosted by Georgia Tech, who is one of the plaintiffs. She’s joined by her Wildcat teammate, Kaitlynn Wheeler, and Kentucky junior golf player Ellie Eades.
Reka Gyorgy, a previous Virginia Tech swimmer, wrote a letter to the NCAA in which she expressed her frustration after placing 17th in the 500 freestyle at the 2022 NCAA Championships. Additionally, Kylee Alons, a former NC State swimmer, claimed she changed in a storage room to prevent Thomas from seeing her undressed.
The NCAA is alleged to have violated Title IX in part because its rules “deprive women of equitable access to separate showers, locker rooms, and related facilities which protect their right to bodily privacy,” according to the complaint.
Following an incident on campus next fall, five Division III Roanoke College athletes were named as plaintiffs. After members of the women’s swimming team held a press conference with Gaines in opposition of the NCAA’s trans participation policies, a member of the men’s swimming team applied to join the women’s team.
“That swimmer’s application did not make the Roanoke College Athletes whole,” the complaint says. According to the group, “They live with the constant fear that Roanoke College and the NCAA will permit the male athlete if this man or another man attempts to join the Roanoke College women’s swimming team due to the NCAA’s Transgender Eligibility Policies.”
The lawsuit concludes with a “Prayer for Relief” that seeks to “reassign” past awards and prevent trans women from using women’s locker rooms, showers, or restrooms. Additionally, it seeks injunctive relief in connection with the NCAA’s transgender eligibility policies as well as damages for “pain and suffering, mental and emotional distress, anguish and anxiety, lost opportunities, and other damages due to defendants’ wrongful conduct.”
“This lawsuit against the NCAA isn’t just about competition, it’s a fight for the very essence of women’s sports,” said Marshi Smith, a former NCAA champion swimmer at Arizona and a co-founder of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS), which is funding the lawsuit.
Because they are hosting championship events over the next two years, the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, and North Georgia are listed as defendants along with the NCAA. Georgia is hosting the 2025 SEC Swimming and Diving Championships, Georgia Tech is hosting the 2025 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships, and North Georgia is hosting the 2026 NCAA Rowing Championships.
You can read the full 155-page lawsuit here.
In accordance with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) standards, the NCAA currently requires women’s swimmers and divers to have a testosterone threshold of less than 10 nmol/L.
At a congressional hearing last year regarding Thomas’s swimming participation in the 2022 NCAA Championships, new president Charlie Baker said, “I don’t believe that policy would be the policy we would use today.” However, the former Massachusetts governor has yet to make any changes to the NCAA’s policy on transgender eligibility.
Thomas revealed that it has been a long-time her goal to compete at the Olympics after winning the 2022 NCAA title in the 500-yard freestyle a few months after winning the title. The next month, World Aquatics (then FINA) voted to prevent transgender women from competing in elite women’s categories, instead creating a separate “open” category. However, because there aren’t many trans swimmers competing at the top level, that category has been a failure so far.
In January, it was reported that Thomas has been filing a legal challenge to the transgender women’s category ban in World Aquatics.
