ATLANTA – Former Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines was among more than a dozen college athletes who filed a lawsuit Thursday against the NCAA, accusing it of violating their Title IX rights by allowing Lia Thomas to to participate 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 number 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 fifth place.
Another plaintiff, Tylor Mathieu of Florida, finished ninth in the prelims of the 500m free, putting her just one place away from swimming in the final, which Thomas would later win. Thomas was the first openly transgender athlete to win a Division I title in any sport, finishing ahead of three Olympic medalists. Because Mathieu did not make it to the finals, he was denied first-team All-American honors in the event.
Other plaintiffs included athletes from the fields of volleyball and track and field.
The lawsuit states that the plaintiffs “bring this case to secure for future generations of women the promise of Title IX denied to them and other college women by the NCAA.”
The NCAA declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Critics claim that transgender female athletes have an advantage over cisgender women in competition, although there is still a general lack of extensive research on elite sport and virtually none when it comes to determining whether, for example, a transgender woman will compete in the second round academic year has a clear advantage over their cisgender opponents or teammates.
In 2022, the NCAA followed the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee's lead and revised its policies on transgender athlete participation to align with national sports federations.
The third phase of the revised policy adds national and international standards for athletic associations to the NCAA's 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 stop the NCAA from implementing its transgender eligibility policies “which negatively impact female athletes and violate Title IX” at upcoming events in Georgia.
Representatives for Georgia schools said they had not been served with the lawsuit and would not comment.
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