Former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines responded Monday to comments Lia Thomas made in an interview last week about the alleged «half-hearted support» she received from women who argue that only athletes born as girls should compete. against other women in sports.
The former University of Pennsylvania swimmer told Schuyler’s Dance podcast «Dear Schuyler» that some women wear the «guise of feminism to push transphobic beliefs.» She expressed her dismay at the support she received from her coming out as transgender in contrast to the outrage she received when she competed against biological women in women’s sports at the NCAA level during the 2021-22 season.
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Lia Thomas of Pennsylvania awaits a preliminary series at the start of the NCAA Women’s 500m Freestyle Swimming Championships on Thursday, March 17, 2022, at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
Gaines responded to Thomas on the «Michele Tafoya Podcast.» The Kentucky alumnus tied Thomas in one of the NCAA Championship events last year.
«It just amazes me, honestly, when I hear that,» Gaines told Tafoya. «What I see, the words that come to my mind, is entitlement. It’s narcissism. It’s putting your own feelings, your own safety, your own privacy, your own justice, your own dignity, your own sanity, I could go on. .. Above anyone else you know you are the one that affects all those things for the majority of the population Women make up 51% of the world.
University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, middle, smiles with Yale University swimmer Iszac Henig, right, after winning the 100-yard freestyle during the Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships in the 2022 Ivy League at Blodgett Pool on February 19, 2022 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Kathryn Riley/Getty Images)
«Competing with us, Lia knew we didn’t feel comfortable in the locker room. Lia knew we were giving our chances to someone who had never earned the same accolades in the men’s division, but she didn’t care. It just shows complete disregard. by women, that is misogyny.
«Feminism and sex-based terms are not fluid. These are not terms that just change based on how you feel. And so totally change what the feminist movement is and what the feminist movement was started for, what represented in the ’90s which it really represented until about three years ago I think COVID was a big tipping point for a lot of these things these terms don’t change you can’t change them just because you feel like it so now I guess that I consider myself a feminist, something I would never have considered before. So, I call it a modern feminist, which means that women deserve respect. We deserve equal opportunity, and we don’t deserve to be overshadowed, ignored by men in the charade of being women».
University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, left, and Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines react after finishing tied for fifth in the 200-meter freestyle finals at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships on March 18, 2022 at the McAuley Aquatic Center in Atlanta. (Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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Thomas’ comments came as Republicans backed a House bill aimed at preventing biological men from competing as transgender athletes in women’s and women’s sports. The Biden administration has also proposed new additions to the Title IX rules to bar states from enacting similar bills.