Sixteen female athletes led by All-American swimmer Riley Gaines filed a federal lawsuit against the NCAA, accusing the organization of violating Title IX by allowing male-born athletes to compete in women’s sports based on gender identity.
The landmark class-action lawsuit also named the University System of Georgia, which includes Georgia Tech, home of the 2022 NCAA women’s swimming championships at which transgender swimmer Lia Thomas became the first known male-born competitor to capture a Division I women’s title.
“The NCAA cannot continue to run from accountability and responsibility in upholding the federal civil rights law that is Title IX,” said Gaines, a 2022 University of Kentucky graduate and host of the OutKick “Gaines on Girls” podcast, in a video post.
The complaint filed Thursday on behalf of the former and current collegiate athletes came after the NCAA failed to comply with a Jan. 11 demand letter from the Our Bodies, Our Sports coalition calling for a repeal of policies allowing male-born athletes to compete in women’s events.
“The NCAA has long acted as if it were the sole arbiter of Title IX’s meaning in college sports,” said the 155-page lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Georgia (Atlanta Division).
“It issues and enforces eligibility rules in collegiate sports which undermine the foundational principle of equal treatment for women upon which Title IX rests, providing an excuse for Title IX covered institutions to violate federal law,” the complaint said.
The lawsuit also accused the University System of Georgia and Georgia Tech, an NCAA member, of running afoul of Title IX by changing the women’s locker room designation at the 2022 swimming finals to “unisex.”
“This change was made so that Thomas, a fully grown adult male with full male genitalia, could use the same locker rooms to be used by more than 300 female student-athletes, depriving the female student-athletes of sex-separated women’s locker room facilities and bathroom and restroom facilities,” the complaint said.
The decision to allow Thomas to share facilities with the women exposed them to “a loss of bodily privacy and shock, humiliation, and embarrassment in violation of their constitutional right to bodily privacy,” said the filing.
In a Thursday statement, NCAA spokesperson Michelle Hosick defended the organization’s record.
“College sports are the premier stage for women’s sports in America, and while the NCAA does not comment on pending litigation, the Association and its members will continue to promote Title IX, make unprecedented investments in women’s sports and ensure fair competition in all NCAA championships,” she said in an email.
Big news dropping today…the NCAA continues to actively and openly discriminate against women on the basis of our sex. We issued a legal demand letter last year, but they haven’t listened. Stay tuned pic.twitter.com/pQ5cxfGqXg
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) March 14, 2024
The NCAA’s transgender eligibility policies for the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons require male-to-female athletes in 19 of 25 sports to keep their testosterone in serum below 10 nmol/L, a level described as “five times (5x) greater than the highest level of testosterone any woman produces without doping.”
“In six NCAA women’s sports the threshold is lower than 10 nmol/L,” said the lawsuit. “However, in every single NCAA women’s sport the NCAA’s testosterone threshold applicable to males who seek to compete against women is higher than the highest testosterone level women can produce without doping” (italics theirs).
The NCAA defended its record at its annual convention in Phoenix, telling the Independent Women’s Forum that it was “proud to invest in, support and advance women’s sports and has recently made significant progress towards these goals.”
The organization cited its women’s basketball-bracket expansion; its $920 million contract with ESPN for media rights to increase exposure to women’s sports, and expanding women’s wrestling, flag football, and pickleball.
“The NCAA will continue to work with a wide range of stakeholders on promoting fairness and equity for college athletes because every competitor deserves the opportunity to participate in college sports,” said Felicia Martin, NCAA senior vice president for inclusion, education and community engagement, the IWF reported.
The 16 athletes bringing the lawsuit include six swimmers who competed in the 2022 Division I women’s finals, including Reka Gyorgy, a 2022 Virginia Tech grad who missed out on a spot in the 500-yard freestyle B finals after finishing behind Thomas.
“It feels like that final spot was taken away from [me] because of the NCAA’s decision to let someone who is not a biological female compete,” said the Hungarian-born Gyorgy in a March 2022 open letter to the NCAA.
Two of the athletes were identified anonymously “over fears of retribution and reprisal for bringing the claims set forth in this Complaint.”
Also named were six members of the Roanoke College women’s swimming team who spoke out last year against allowing a male-to-female transgender student to join the Division III squad.
The lawsuit was filed by attorneys for Kroger Gardis & Regas in Indianapolis, where the NCAA is based, and Taylor English Duma in Atlanta. Funding the lawsuit is the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, or ICONS.
“This lawsuit against the NCAA isn’t just about competition; it’s a fight for the very essence of women’s sports,” said ICONS co-founder Marshi Smith, a University of Arizona All-American and NCAA national champion swimmer. “We’re standing up for justice and the rights of female athletes to compete on a level playing field. It’s about preserving the legacy of Title IX and ensuring that the future of women’s sports is as bright as its past.”
William Bock, the lawsuit’s lead attorney and former general counsel of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, resigned in February from the NCAA Committee on Infractions over the transgender rule, calling it a “policy of discrimination against female student-athletes.”
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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