Lia Thomas speaks to her coach after winning the 500-yard freestyle during a collegiate meet on January 22, 2022.
Lia Thomas speaks to her coach 
after winning the 500-yard 
freestyle during a collegiate 
meet on January 22, 2022. 
CNN — 

Transgender swimmer Lia

 Thomas, who made national 

headlines in 2022 after winning 

an NCAA individual title, will not 

be allowed to compete in elite 

women’s races, including the 

2024 Olympics, after the Court of

 Arbitration for Sport ruled this 

week that she lacks standing for 

her challenge to the rules of 

swimming’s world governing 

body.

The ruling comes just days before 

the US Olympic swimming trials, 

which begin Saturday.

CNN has reached out to Thomas’

 attorney for the swimmer’s 

comment.

Thomas, 25, had in January filed 

legal paperwork against World 

Aquatics, swimming’s governing 

body based in Switzerland, for 

its policy that restricts trans

gender athletes from competing 

in most elite women’s aquatics 

competitions.

The policy dictates male-to-female 

transgender athletes would only 

be eligible to compete in the 

women’s categories if they 

transition before the age of 12 or 

before they reach stage 2 of the 

puberty Tanner Stages.

University of Pennsylvania transgender swimmer Lia Thomas speaks to her coach after winning the 500 meter freestyle during an NCAA college swimming meet with Harvard, Jan. 22, 2022, at Harvard University in Cambridge.

RELATED ARTICLETransgender swimmer Lia Thomas begins legal case against swimming’s world governing body

World Aquatics officials said in a 

statement the decision this week 

is “a major step forward in our 

efforts to protect women’s sport.”

“World Aquatics is dedicated to 

fostering an environment that 

promotes fairness, respect, and 

equal opportunities for athletes 

of all genders and we reaffirm 

this pledge,” officials said. “Our 

policies and practices are 

continuously evaluated to 

ensure they align with these 

core values, which led to the 

introduction of our open 

category.”

The three-member Court of 

Arbitration for Sport panel found 

Thomas was not eligible “for the 

time being” to participate in 

World Aquatics competitions 

and only eligible for USA 

Swimming events that do not 

qualify as elite events. It also 

said national federations don’t 

have the authority to modify 

the application of a world 

governing body’s rules.

As a swimmer on the women’s 

team at the University of 

Pennsylvania, Thomas became the 

first transgender athlete to win an 

NCAA Division 1 title after winning 

the women’s 500-yard freestyle 

event in March 2022. The NCAA

 championships fall outside the 

purview of World Aquatics.

Lia Thomas is on her way to winning the 500-yard freestyle during the NCAA championships in March 2022.
Lia Thomas is on her way to 
winning the 500-yard freestyle 
during the NCAA championships 
in March 2022. 

A few months later World Aquatics 

ratified its updated gender policy, 

which went into effect in March 

2023, according to the 24-page 

arbitral award. It created an open 

category for transgender athletes 

at a World Cup event in Berlin in 

October for “all sex and gender 

identities.”

World Aquatics oversees 

competitions in swimming, 

artistic swimming, open water 

swimming, water polo, diving 

and high diving. USA Swimming 

is the national governing body 

for swimmers and a member 

of World Aquatics.

The ruling comes just before the 

US Olympic swimming trials, 

which begin Saturday.

In May 2022, Thomas told ABC’s 

Juju Chang, “It’s been a goal of 

mine to just swim at an Olympic 

trials for a very long time and I 

would love to see that through.”


Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas 

begins legal case against 

swimming’s world governing body

 Friday, January 26, 2024

University of Pennsylvania 

transgender swimmer Lia Thomas 

speaks to her coach after winning 

the 500 meter freestyle during an 

NCAA college swimming meet 

with Harvard, Jan. 22, 2022, at 

Harvard University in Cambridge.


Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas 

has begun legal proceedings 

against World Aquatics, 

swimming’s governing body, after 

it voted to restrict transgender 

athletes from competing in elite 

women’s aquatics competitions, 

according to the Court of 

Arbitration for Sport.


The swimmer is challenging certain 

parts of the World Aquatics’ gender 

inclusion policy, which went into 

effect on June 20, 2022, according 

to the international court body.


Thomas’ legal focus aims to 

overturn the policy that dictates 

male-to-female transgender 

athletes would only be eligible to 

compete in the women’s categories 

if they transition before the age of 

12 or before they reach stage two 

of the puberty Tanner Stages*.

*Tanner scale

Physical development scale of 

children, adolescents, and adults

The Tanner scale is a scale of 

physical development as children 

transition into adolescence and 

then adulthood. (CHART here)


“Ms Thomas accepts that fair 

competition is a legitimate 

sporting objective and that some 

regulation of transgender women 

in swimming is appropriate,” the 

court stated Friday in a news 

release.


“However, Ms Thomas submits that 

the Challenged Provisions are 

invalid and unlawful as they 

discriminate against her contrary to 

the Olympic Charter, the World 

Aquatics Constitution, and Swiss 

law including the European 

Convention on Human Rights and 

the Convention on the Elimination 

of All Forms of Discrimination 

against Women,” the release said. 

“… and that such discrimination 

cannot be justified as necessary, 

reasonable, or proportionate to 

achieve a legitimate sporting 

objective.”


World Aquatics oversees aquatic 

competitions in swimming, water 

polo, diving, artistic swimming, 

open water swimming and high 

diving.


The policy also says athletes who 

have previously used testosterone 

as part of female-to-male gender-

affirming hormone treatment 

would only be eligible to compete 

in women’s competitions if the 

testosterone was used for less 

than a year in total, the treatment 

didn’t take place during puberty 

and testosterone levels in serum 

are back to pretreatment levels.


At the time, the governing body 

promised to establish a new 

working group in order to develop 

open category events for athletes 

who do not meet the criteria for 

men’s or women’s categories.


In August, World Aquatics created 

an open category for transgender 

athletes at a World Cup event in 

Berlin in October for “all sex and 

gender identities.”


“For this inaugural event, the 

emphasis is on gaining further 

experience for future development 

and celebrating diversity,” according 

to swimming’s international 

governing body.


CNN has reached out to Thomas 

for comment through her lawyer.


When asked Friday about Thomas’ 

case against World Aquatics, 

Danne Diamond, director of policy 

and programs for Athlete Ally, an 

advocacy group which works to end 

homophobia and transphobia in 

sports, told CNN: “World Aquatics’ 

transgender policy causes profound 

harm to trans women, who are 

particularly vulnerable in society 

and suffer from high rates of 

violence, abuse, and harassment 

in society and in sport.”


“The ban is not a fair, proper, or 

reasonable balancing of rights,” 

said Diamond. “It is grossly 

disproportionate and has the effect 

of excluding virtually all trans 

women athletes from international 

aquatics.”


The court said a hearing date for 

Thomas’ legal challenge has yet 

to be set.


Thomas became first trans athlete 

to win an NCAA Division 1 title

The debate on transgender women 

in swimming, which led to the new 

gender inclusion policy and open 

category, came under a spotlight 

when Thomas, a University of 

Pennsylvania swimmer who 

started on the school’s men’s 

swimming team in 2017, 

eventually joined the UPenn 

women’s team in 2020.


At the time of her transition in 2019, 

the NCAA required transgender 

athletes to have one year of 

hormone replacement therapy to 

be cleared to compete.


In February 2022, 16 members of 

the University of Pennsylvania’s 

swim team sent a letter to the 

university and the Ivy League 

asking them to not challenge the 

NCAA’s new transgender athlete 

participation policies which would 

prevent Thomas and other 

transgender athletes to compete.


In the letter, they argued Thomas 

had an “unfair advantage,” and said 

they supported her gender 

transition out of the pool but not 

necessarily in it.


Despite the backlash, Penn Athletic

-s and the Ivy League maintained 

their support for the transgender 

swimmer, and over 300 current 

and former swimmers signed their 

names to an open letter defending 

her ability to compete.


As a swimmer on the women’s 

team, Thomas became the first 

transgender athlete to win an NCAA 

Division 1 title after winning the 

women’s 500-yard freestyle event 

in March 2022.


Advocates of banning transgender 

women from women’s sport have 

argued transgender women have a 

physical advantage over cisgender* 

women in sports.

(* cisgender /sĭs-jĕn′dər/

adjective

1. Identifying as having a gender 

that corresponds to the sex one 

has been assigned at birth; not 

transgender.

2. Of or relating to cisgender 

people.

3. Identifying with or experiencing 

a gender the same as one's 

biological sex or that is affirmed by 

society, e.g. being both 

male-gendered and male-sexed.)


But the mainstream science does 

not support that conclusion. A 

2017 report in the journal Sports 

Medicine which reviewed several 

related studies found “no direct or 

consistent research” on trans 

people having an athletic 

advantage over their cisgender 

peers, and critics say the bans 

add to the discrimination trans 

people face.


Riley Marie Gaines, also known as 

Riley Gaines Barker, is an American

 former competitive swimmer from

 Gallatin, Tennessee, who 

competed for the University of 

Kentucky NCAA swim team.

Speaks Louder youtube video here 


1. Riley Gaines, a 12-time All-

American Swimmer, shared her 

experience of competing against a 

transgender athlete and the 

challenges faced by women in 

sports due to policies that she 

believes hinder women's rights 

and fair competition.

2. Riley Gaines highlighted the 

importance of standing up for 

women's rights in sports, 

advocating for the protection of 

women's privacy, security, and 

access to a level playing field, 

especially in the context of Title IX 

regulations.

3. Riley Gaines faced a violent mob 

at San Francisco State University 

during a speaking engagement, 

where she was assaulted, held 

hostage, and threatened, 

emphasizing the serious safety 

concerns and intimidation faced by 

individuals expressing differing 

perspectives on college campuses.

4. The lack of support and 

protection from campus 

administrators, the failure of 

campus police to ensure safety, and 

the subsequent ransom demands 

made by protestors further 

underscore the challenges to free 

speech and safety faced by 

individuals with differing viewpoints.

5.The response from the university's 

Vice President of Student Affairs 

praising the protestors' actions as 

"tremendously brave" and the 

failure to condemn violence and 

kidnapping on campus highlight 

the concerning trend of 

suppressing free speech and 

dissenting opinions in academic 

settings.

Watch  video here  ( ) 


RILEY GAINES :

House Homeland Security 

Committee Subcommittee on 

Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability 

May16, 2023 


Thank you Chairman Bishop, 

Ranking Member Ivey, and 

members of the Committee for 

inviting me to speak to you today. 

My name is Riley Gaines. I am a 

12-time All-American Swimmer 

from the University of Kentucky. 

Competing in the women’s division 

of the 2022 NCAAChampionships, 

I and my fellow female swimmers 

were required to compete and 

share the locker room with Lia 

Thomas, a biological male who 

competed on the men’s team at 

University of Pennsylvania as Will 

Thomas the three years prior. In 

the 200-yard NCAA women’s final I 

tied Thomas. Despite going the 

exact same time down to the 

hundredth of a second, the NCAA 

gave Thomas the trophy as they 

explained this was necessary for 

“photo purposes” and told me I 

had to go home empty handed. 


At our National Championships, I 

looked around and wondered why 

no one was standing up for me and 

all the other women in the pool and 

in the locker room. As I talked to 

my teammates and competitors at 

the NCAA Championships, I 

discovered that the overwhelming 

majority of the girls shared extreme 

discomfort being forced to strip 

down in front of a male who was 

intact with and exposing male 

genitalia in the same room. After 

seeing how this affected every girl 

at that meet, I decided I would 

stand up and speak out. I resolved 

to do everything I could do to 

ensure that no other girls feel alone 

in the fight for their right to compete 

on a level playing field.


 I put my plans for dental school on 

hold after graduation and decided 

to tell my story. Last December, I 

joined the nation’s most influential 

women's organization making 

gains to stand up for women’s 

rights and against discrimination 

of women in single-sex spaces — 

Independent Women’s Forum 

(IWF) and its c4 sister organization 

Independent Women’s Voice (IWV). 

I serve as the organizations’ Stand 

With Women spokeswoman, and 

have been fortunate to have a 

bigger platform from which to 

share my experiences — in the 

media, before elected officials, 

among the public, and alongside a 

bipartisan coalition of 

organizations and individual 

athletes driving advocacy efforts 

to let rule-making bodies like the 

NCAA and the White House know 

America won’t stand for unjust and 

discriminatory policies that hinder 

women’s rights. I have spent this 

past year speaking about the need 

to keep women’s sports female 

and to safeguard women’s privacy, 

security, and access to a fair 

playing field. What a year it has 

been! 


My experience certainly did not feel 

like our privacy and equal 

opportunities were being protected 

by administrators who were legally 

responsible to uphold Title IX. Even 

worse than the efforts to dismantle 

Title IX are the efforts to silence 

and intimidate us through the use 

of every means available — fear, 

shame, threats, emotional black

mail, gaslighting — to try to keep 

us from speaking out against the 

efforts to deprive women of their 

rights.


 I believe the coerced silencing of 

women and men by college 

administrators who will not let us 

speak freely about injustices now 

being faced by women in sports is 

one of the most important free 

speech issues of our time. 


Seeing how universities were not 

allowing students to truthfully 

consider all perspectives, I found it 

necessary to travel to various 

college campuses to share my 

experience surrounding the 

injustices being faced by women 

in sports and the systemic attempt 

to erase women as a whole. 


However, what I did not know then 

was how vicious the effort to 

silence me and other women has 

become. I would soon learn. 


I soon learned that college 

administrators appear to be using 

another, even more dangerous 

technique, reliance on mob 

intimidation and violence. I have 

come to believe intimidation and 

compelled silence is being 

knowingly enforced through violent 

means, as college administrators 

silence free speech by failing to 

control and prevent mob tactics 

and mob violence. 


On April 6, 2023, I traveled to San 

Francisco State University to 

speak to a campus group on the 

right of women to compete on a 

level playing field in sports. The 

school administration was aware 

of my visit, and the program had 

been publicized on campus. I was 

told I would be met by campus 

police and briefed on a security 

plan an hour and a half before the 

event, but the campus police failed 

to show up to our scheduled 

meeting. 


I went to the building where I was 

to speak which was on the third-

floor of a classroom building. At 

the time, I did not think about the 

difficulty of exiting a third-floor 

room if a mob gained control of 

the hallways and stairways. 


I entered the room which soon 

began to fill with protestors. Still no 

campus officers showed like I was 

told they would. I began my speech 

and the protestors in the room 

were generally not disruptive. 

However, I could hear chanting in 

the hallway outside the room. I 

sensed the situation outside might 

be growing confrontational which 

was unnerving, but no one provided 

any guidance to alert me that my 

safety was at risk. They 

continuously chanted from outside 

the room “we fight back.” I began 

to fear for my safety. 


As I ended my presentation, 

protestors in the room opened the 

locked doors and a chaotic flood 

of shouting, angry, protestors 

forced their way in. The crowd 

rushed at me, some with fists 

raised, most shouting, anger 

contorting many faces around me. 

Then the lights in the room began 

flicking on and off in strobe-like 

fashion and then they went off. The 

room was filled with the glare of a

hundred cell phone flashlights, 

some being shined in my face. I 

realized I was at the mercy of the 

crowd, and I was assaulted. 


A woman grabbed me, told me she 

was with campus police and pulled 

me toward the door. I did not 

believe she was actually with the 

police because she wore no clothes 

that indicated she was an officer 

and had a face covering on. I 

resisted at first, but I recognized I 

had no choice because I could not 

have made it out without help. I 

truly feared for my life. 


Once we made it to the hallway, we 

were met with an even larger mob 

blocking the stairway exit 

ultimately forcing us to barricade 

ourselves into an office along this 

same hallway. The small room we 

had found would be my prison for 

the next three hours. The door to 

the hallway, the only barrier 

between me and those who were 

yelling violent threats, demanding 

that the door be opened so that 

they could “handle me themselves.” 


In those hours I was held against 

my will, the mob screamed 

vengeful, racist, violent things at 

both myself and the officers. I 

received no assurance that I would 

get out of that situation alive. When 

I needed consoling from the 

officers because I was so flustered 

and confused, they told me they 

could not provide me with that as it 

was too controversial. I expressed I 

had been hit, and no one asked me 

if I was okay or needed medical 

attention. When I realized I missed 

my flight back home due to being 

held hostage, I became visibly 

upset and told the lieutenant in the 

room I just wanted to make it 

home. He responded with “don't 

you think we all want to go home?” 


After a while some of the 

protestors began to demand a 

ransom for my release. They asked 

for payment and threatened not to 

safely release me without it. I heard 

an adult administrator from the 

university outside the door trying to 

negotiate my release. They said my 

appearance on campus was so 

traumatic, they were “owed 

something.” They were under the 

false notion that the university paid 

me to be there, therefore they only 

thought it was fair I should pay if I 

want to leave. The amount of $10 

for each student was suggested. 


From inside the room,I heard things 

being said such as “If she didn’t 

want the smoke, she shouldn't have 

came here”, “you did this to your

self, b*t*h”, “you come on this 

campus and think we’re not going 

to start a riot?”, “let her out so we 

can handle her”, “we aren’t letting 

up.” There was even a school 

reporter there doxxing my 

information and location on twitter 

in hopes more protestors would 

show up.


 After hours of being held against 

my will, officers from the City of 

San Francisco Police Department 

finally arrived. These officers were 

much more methodical and 

assertive in developing an exit 

strategy. Around midnight, the 

officers formed a diamond around 

me and pushed through the mob 

to get outside. 


My student hosts had a car waiting 

for me outside. I had to run to the 

car because we were met with 

more protestors outside who were 

also running at the car. We were 

able to drive away from SFSU but 

with no police escort or police 

following us to make sure we got 

where we needed to go safely. I 

was still in desperate fear for my 

safety the entire time I was in San 

Francisco and until I was eventually 

able to board a plane for the 

return flight home. 


After being threatened, intimidated,

 assaulted, and held hostage not a 

day has gone by that I have not 

thought about these events, had 

flashbacks, and experienced 

emotional trauma at realizing how 

close to being seriously injured or 

even killed I may have come. I have 

had nights where I can’t fall asleep 

and continue to be unsettled about 

this whole matter knowing what 

these protestors wanted to do to 

me. At the same time, I am 

determined to do whatever I can do 

to make sure this never happens 

again to anybody. 


A violent mob took control of a 

building and the campus police on 

the SFSU campus that evening, 

seeking to stamp out free speech 

and take a physical hostage. The 

mob was given free rein to do so 

and that certainly sent a message. 

The message is that those who 

encourage open dialogue that 

conflict with the radical left policies 

that control college campuses will 

not be protected nor will their 

safety be taken seriously. 


The SFSU V.P. of Student Affairs 

Jamillah Moore released a 

statement applauding students for 

their “ tremendously brave” efforts 

to “peacefully protest” someone as 

“personally abhorrent” as myself 

that evening. The email claimed 

the school welcomes and 

embraces diversity, yet it was more 

than evident they didn't welcome 

me and my perspective. 


Kidnapping is not a peaceful 

protest. What happened to me 

throughout the evening of April 6 

was not in any way peaceful. 


Free speech suffers when 

university administrators do not 

condemn violence and kidnapping 

on their campus, it is chilled when 

administrators do not adequately 

prepare for and protect the safety 

of speakers- whether conservative 

or liberal- and free speech is under-

mined when administrators 

misrepresent and malign the views 

of those with whom they disagree. 


I speak from experience when I 

say that free speech is under attack 

on college campuses around the 

country and many college 

administrators appear to only be 

giving aid and comfort to those 

who are trying to silence 

conservative speech on campus.