"His male genitalia was touching my hand" - Olympic swimmer narrates her experience with Lia Thomas at the NCAA championships

Modified Aug 30, 2024 01:49 GMT

Lia Thomas has recently been accused of inappropriate behavior with fellow swimmers. In a recent conversation with former swimmer and women's rights advocate Riley Gaines, former Olympian Reka Gyorgy recounted her harrowing experience with the transgender swimmer at the 2022 NCAA Championships, and why the authorities have been unfair to their cause.

Riley Gaines recently shared a video with Gyorgy [who represented Hungary at the Rio Olympics in 2016], who narrated her ordeal with Lia Thomas at the NCAA Championships in 2022.

Gaines captioned the post on her X account [formerly Twitter] and said:

"Olympic swimmer describes her experience with Thomas in the locker room at our NCAA Championships. 'As he [Lia] bumped into me, his male genitalia was touching my hand... He smiled at me and said sorry in a male voice.' Sick & heartbreaking, but EVERYONE needs to listen."

Expand Tweet

Reka Gyorgy stated that Lia Thomas had completely exposed herself to Gyorgy.

"I was shocked by his size, he was about six feet four inches tall, and I was shocked that as he [Lia] bumped into me, his male genitalia was touching my hand that was stuck between us. I could have even said sorry, I froze, and he just smiled at me and said sorry in a male voice."

Lia Thomas had become the first transgender athlete to win the NCAA Championships in 2022.

The swimmer also won the 500-yard freestyle race but was subsequently banned from competing in women's sports by World Aquatics [formerly FINA], the official body that supervises swimming events.

Can Lia Thomas still compete in women's sports?

Lia Thomas reacts after winning the women's 500-yard freestyle race at the NCAA Championships 2022 [Image Source: Getty]

Lia Thomas is currently banned for life by World Aquatics from participating in women's swimming events. In a landmark judgment in 2022, World Aquatics declared that they are open to transgenders competing in sports, and even allotted a provision for a separate category for such swimmers.

However, the apex swimming body ruled out any possibility of transgender athletes competing if they experienced before the age of 12. Thomas challenged the ban, but the appeal was struck down in June 2024 by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, who ruled that World Aquatics did not do anything wrong. In their judgment, CAS mentioned that Thomas had no legal standing to sue World Aquatics for any change in their rules.

A statement from CAS read:

"The panel concludes that since the Athlete [Thomas] is not entitled to participate in 'Elite Event' within the meaning of USA Swimming Policy, let alone to compete in a WA [World Aquatics] competition, which occurs upon registration with WA prior to a competition or setting a performance which leads to a request for registration as WA world record, she is simply not entitled to engage with eligibility to compete in WA competitions."

This put paid to any chance Thomas had of competing at the Paris Olympics.