Swimmer who tied with Lia Thomas says female athletes ‘not OK’ with where women’s sports are going

At the NCAA swimming championships Lia Thomas notably won the 500m freestyle event. Even though she won many believe that Thomas was taking it easy on the female swimmers and was pulling a ‘Laurel Hubbard’. This is perhaps in line with what the lobby judged was necessary in order for general public to be more accepting of transwomen competing with biological women.

Now a swimmer that tied with Thomas in the 200 yard freestyle event is speaking out on the crooked trajectory women’s sports appear to be on.

“The majority of us female athletes, or females in general, really, are not OK with this, and they’re not OK with the trajectory of this and how this is going and how it could end up in a few years,” Riley Gaines told Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) during an interview on her podcast “Unmuted with Marsha.”

Gaines’s comments are targeted at NCAA rules that currently allow for testosterone concentration that is 6,7 times bigger than the average biological woman.

Gaines went on to describe how she felt during her competition against Thomas:

“I touched the wall and saw there was a five by my name indicating that I got fifth … I also looked up, and I saw the number five by Lia’s name and so, in that moment, I realized we tied,” Gaines said. “It was kind of like a flood of emotions. I was extremely happy for the girls above me who conquered what was seemingly impossible by beating Lia.”

Gaines went on to be even more affected by this – after the race an NCAA official approached her and said they had only one trophy for the 5th place finisher and they’re opting to give it to Thomas.

 “I walked back [to get my trophy] and the NCAA official came up to me, and he said, ‘Hey, that was a great swim. We only have one fifth place trophy,’ which I understood, I get how that works. But he said, ‘We’re going to have to give the trophy to Lia. Yours will be coming in the mail. Great job.’

“And so I don’t think they handled this properly. But I don’t think they were prepared, you know, to handle this kind of situation,” she added.

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) earlier this week introduced a bill to honors Emma Weyant, who came in second place to Thomas in the 500-yard freestyle.