Riley Gaines says some ‘violated’ swimmers ‘undressed in the janitor’s closet’ to avoid Lia Thomas
Former All-American college swimmer Riley Gaines told the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday that some swimmers felt so “uncomfortable” and “violated” by transgender swimmer Lia Thomas that they “undressed in the janitor’s closet” during a tournament last year.
Gaines, an outspoken proponent of reserving women’s sports for biological females, described the locker room dynamics at the 2022 NCAA Championships during an exchange with Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) at a hearing on “Defending the Civil Rights of LGBTQ+ Americans.”
The former University of Kentucky swimmer told Lee that the NCAA did “nothing” at the 2022 tournament to accommodate her and other female swimmers who felt uncomfortable sharing an open locker room with Thomas, who swam for the University of Pennsylvania as a male from 2017 to 2020.
Gaines testified that none of her fellow swimmers consented to sharing a locker room with Thomas, whom she described as a “6-foot-4, 22-year-old male equipped with and exposing male genitalia.”
“There was even a group of girls who undressed in the janitor’s closet. They changed clothes in the janitor’s closet because they felt more comfortable undressing in that environment than they did undressing next to someone with male gaze,” Gaines told the committee.
“They were doing it because they were violated,” Gaines added.
The former swimmer clarified to the Senate panel that she isn’t advocating for an outright ban on transgender athletes, but rather, she wants “everyone to compete where it’s fair and it’s safe.”
“I don’t believe trans athletes should be banned from sports,” she said. “That’s the rhetoric that’s being pushed from the opposition.”
“I just want everyone to compete where it’s fair and where it’s safe, and I don’t understand how that’s overly controversial.”
During the hearing, Gaines also rebuked Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson for claiming that male competitors wouldn’t stand a chance against tennis legend Serena Williams.
“There’s been this news article about men that think they can beat Serena Williams in tennis,” Robinson said. “And it’s just not the case. She is stronger than them.”
After the comment, Gaines noted that “both Serena and Venus [Williams] lost to the 203rd ranked male tennis player.”
Gaines was alluding to a1998 battle of the sexes match between the Williams sisters and Karsten Braasch, who challenged and beat the tennis phenoms after they claimed they could defeat any male player ranked outside the world’s top 200.
