Parents of Female Swimmers Speak Out: ‘Shame on the NCAA’

Atlanta — When I spoke with parents of female swimmers at the NCAA women’s swimming championships this week, there were typically two main concerns they wanted to communicate. First, they are not transphobic. Second, allowing a biological male to compete against their daughters is unfair. As much as I sympathize with the falsely accused, so long as avoiding accusations of “transphobia” is the primary concern, this madness will continue.

As I noted on the Corner, when Lia Thomas finished first at the NCAA 500-yard freestyle and was awarded the championship, the atmosphere inside the McAuley Aquatic Center was tense. The cheers and applause were noticeably louder for the second- and third-place finishers. And unlike when Taylor Ruck, a Stanford junior, came in first in Friday’s 200-freestyle final — Thomas’s was a lonely victory walk.

Charlie asks, “Is anyone actually fooled by Lia Thomas?” You would think not, but in debating biological sex with one spectator, I was taken aback when she said, “I’m a physician and I can tell you this is very subtle. You might be a man. How do you know you’re not if you’ve never been tested?”

Likewise, a Georgia Tech student and counter-protester with Pride Alliance and Grad Pride told me that “people should trust experts.” But of course, we don’t need experts to explain basic biology. And we certainly don’t need the kind of “experts” who try to baffle everyone with their ludicrous ideology. Kellie-Jay Keen, a women’s-rights activist from England, illustrated this point perfectly in debating a trans activist at the poolside while Thomas raced ahead in the 500-freestyle prelims. She said, pointing at Thomas, “I’m a woman and that’s not a woman.” When a transgender activist asked her “Are you a biologist?” she replied, “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m not a vet but I know what a dog is.” Her retort obviously resonated with people. Since I posted the video to Twitter two days ago, it has over 1.3 million views and has made news headlines.

Throughout the NCAA swim championships, women’s-rights protesters have gathered outside the McAuley Aquatic Center with “Save Women’s Sports” signs, chanting synchronized messages about protecting women’s sports. I noticed how they were enthusiastically greeted and thanked by parents on their way in. One mom told me how her daughter and her teammates “are being quieted. The coaches won’t talk with them about it. . . . They’re essentially saying smile, shut up, and step aside.”

It’s not just competition that parents are concerned about. It’s also women’s safety and privacy. After the 500-yard freestyle, I spoke to an NCAA female swimmer and her mother. The athlete, speaking of Thomas, said “I’ve seen her in the locker room.” Her mother interjected, “not her — him.” “Him, sorry,” she said. Despite Thomas having male genitalia, the athlete said that “he is very comfortable with the setting. He just took his suit off just like any other female would.” The athlete felt uncomfortable “having a man in the women’s locker room.” Accordingly, she tried to look away, kept her distance, and got changed in the privacy of a stall.

Another mother who played college sports in the 1990s told me she was so upset by what was happening that she was fighting off tears. She told me how her daughter’s swimming opportunities already suffered because of the pandemic. This year’s NCAA was her last chance to compete at the collegiate level, but she was right at the cutoff for the qualifiers in one event featuring Thomas, and so was bumped out of that competition. “That’s why she’s only swimming in the relays,” her mother explained.

“It’s heartbreaking because I grew up hearing my mom say she didn’t have sports,” she said. “[My mom] said, ‘You guys have to compete, you guys have to do these sports, I didn’t have that chance, all I could do was be a cheerleader.’” Title IX transformed women’s athletics into a serious opportunity and equal playing field for women and girls. But many parents fear that the inclusion of biological males in female sports is destroying that legacy.

Not everyone has such concerns, of course. I approached a mother and grandmother in Stanford T-shirts who told me that it wasn’t for them to decide what the rules are. They were there to support their daughter/granddaughter. “We’ll be patient and wait for the rules to catch up to the social change,” the mom said. I asked whether that meant she thought it was fair for biological males to be in female competitions. “That’s not for us to decide,” she repeated.

In one sense, she’s right. The rules aren’t set by parents. And neither are they set by Thomas. It is the NCAA and USA Swimming that have permitted a biological male to compete with females. There is no reason to believe that the physical advantages male bodies have over female bodies in competitive sports can ever be reversed or adequately mitigated. As one mom put it: “Shame on the NCAA and all of the organizations that govern women’s sports.”