Riley Gaines is among 16 female athletes suing NCAA for allowing trans competitors in sport after Lia Thomas 'disrobed in front of non-consenting college women'

Women's rights activist and former college swimmer Riley Gaines is among 16 female athletes who have filed a lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletics Association.

'It's official!' Gaines posted on X on Thursday.

'I'm suing the NCAA along with 15 other collegiate athletes who have lost out on titles, records, & roster spots to men posing as women The NCAA continues to explicitly violate the federal civil rights law of Title IX.'

'About time someone did something about it.'

The federal lawsuit, the first of its kind, centers around Lia Thomas, the trans athlete who won the 2022 NCAA Swimming Championships as a student at the University of Pennsylvania, as reported by The Free Press.

Women's rights activist and former college swimmer Riley Gaines is among 16 female athletes who have filed a lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletics Association

The federal lawsuit, the first of its kind, centers around Lia Thomas, seen with Gaines, who won the 2022 NCAA Swimming Championships as a student at the University of Pennsylvania

Hungarian-born swimmer Réka György lost her spot in the NCAA finals after placing 17th in the 500-yard freestyle during Thursday's Division I meet. She is one of the plaintiffs 

It claims Thomas' win and participation in the event represented a violation of Title IX, which gives women the right to equal opportunity in sports.

Thomas competed as a man as recently as 2019, and her rankings greatly improved following her gender transition. She was ranked 65th when competing in the same category, the 500-yards freestyle, as a male, leading to outrage from activists and female swimmers.

Three months after Thomas' win, World Aquatics implemented a ban on transgender women. US Swimming, by that time, had already introduced strict transgender regulations in March 2022, which critics said stopped short of a ban.

However, the NCAA continues allowing transgender athletes in women's sports. 

The suit asks the NCAA to change its rules to render biological males ineligible to compete against female athletes and that it revoke all awards handed to trans athletes in women's competitions and give them to their female contenders.

Three months after Thomas' win, World Aquatics implemented a ban on transgender women. US Swimming, by that time, had already introduced strict transgender regulations

Thomas competed as a man as recently as 2019, and her rankings greatly improved following her gender transition 

Plaintiffs are seen from from top, left to right:  Kylee Alons, Katie Blankenship, Réka György, and Julianna Morrow; and (from bottom, left to right): Lily Mullens, Kate Pearson, Carter Satterfield, and Kaitlynn Wheeler

Moreover, the suit demands 'damages for pain and suffering, mental and emotional distress, suffering and anxiety, expense costs and other damages due to defendants' wrongful conduct.'

The legal action was organized by the Independent Council on Women’s Sports and filed in Georgia, where the 2022 NCAA championships took place.

Other plaintiffs include former North Carolina State swimmer Kylee Alons, current Virginia Tech simmer Réka György, and Kaitlynn Wheeler, who swam for the University of Kentucky, as did Gaines.

Alons told The Free Press she was so uncomfortable with Thomas using the women's locker room that she began changing in a storage closet.

'I was literally racing U.S. and Olympic gold medalists and I was changing in a storage closet at this elite-level meet,' she said.

The suit accuses the NCAA of violating the Fourteenth Amendment by 'destroying female safe spaces in women’s locker rooms.'

The plaintiffs claim the association is allowing 'naked men possessing full male genitalia to disrobe in front of non-consenting college women,' - thus creating 'situations in which unwilling female college athletes unwittingly or reluctantly exposed their unclad bodies to males, subjecting women to a loss of their constitutional right to bodily privacy.'

Wheeler also spoke about the anxiety she felt when she had to share a locker room with Thomas.

'Never in my 18-year career had I seen a man changing in the locker rooms. I immediately felt the need to cover myself,' she said. 'I could feel the discomfort of the other girls in there.'

The lawsuit comes after Thomas secretly mounted her own legal fight to overturn a decision that bans her from competing against biological females in elite level athletics.

Last year, after Thomas won the NCAA title, World Aquatics banned those who have undergone 'any part of male puberty' from the women's category. 

The ban includes the Olympics and world championships and was enacted in response to the fury sparked by Thomas' smashing biological female competition which triggered claims of unfairness. 

World Aquatics told The Telegraph: 'The World Aquatics policy on gender inclusion, adopted by World Aquatics in June of 2022, was rigorously developed on the basis of advice from leading medical and legal experts, and in careful consultation with athletes.

'World Aquatics remains confident that its gender inclusion policy represents a fair approach and remains absolutely determined to protect women’s sport.'