Former college swimmer Riley Gaines said the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) told female swimmers it was “guilty” over their discomfort with having biological male Leah Thomas in the locker room. He said he tried to make people feel “feeling”.
Gaines tied Thomas for fifth place in the 200m freestyle at the NCAA Women’s Swimming Championships in March 2022. Gaines testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday about an alleged exposure of Thomas’ genitals in her locker room.
“I walked out of the locker room and asked one of the officers on the pool deck, and he said, ‘What are the guidelines that allowed this guy in the locker room?'” Gaines told Fox & said in Friends.
“Then he casually said, ‘Oh, by making the locker room unisex, we could have avoided this problem.’ “First and foremost, he acknowledged how he had to change the rules to let him in our locker room and admitted he was a man.” To, is it unisex? So what kind of man could have entered that locker room? Any coach, official, parent, pervert who wanted to enter the locker room would have had full access there,” she said.
“And at the very least, we weren’t even told this was their deal? That’s what they were doing. That’s how they normalized the situation and made us uncomfortable I was trying to make you feel guilty when you felt it,” she continued. (Related: Riley Gaines drops the mic on trans rights activist who claimed men can’t beat Serena Williams at tennis)
Gaines also criticized the minority of female athletes who support men who compete with them, arguing that it’s only natural for men to obey the signal after they’ve finished competing because they don’t have daughters of their own to defend.
“They know in their hearts and everyone knows that without the women’s sport they would not have had the opportunity or the success,” she continued. “But now they have achieved what they have achieved and have achieved what they wanted to achieve, so they don’t care. I’d rather give up girls and give up our opportunities to be seen as inclusive.”
