Riley Gaines Urges NCAA to Strip Lia Thomas of Titles After World Aquatics Ruling

Women’s sports activist Riley Gaines calls for the NCAA to strip transgender swimmer Lia Thomas of his titles in the wake of his failure to get international swimming to let him apply for the U.S. Women’s Olympics swimming team.

On Wednesday, Thomas lost his case against World Aquatics, the international group that governs swimming competitions. Thomas hoped to force World Aquatics to repeal its strict rules for transgender inclusion that ban males who “transitioned” after puberty from competing in the women’s categories. But the court of arbitration for sport ruled that since Thomas was not a member of World Aquatics, he had no standing to bring the case, and it was thrown out, allowing the group’s transgender inclusion rules to stand.

Thomas, who took several NCAA titles when he was swimming for UPenn’s women’s swimming team in 2022, wanted to try out for the U.S. women’s Olympic swim team, but World Aquatic rules prevented his entry.

With all this swirling around swimming this week, former NCAA champion and save women’s sports activist Riley Gaines is urging the NCAA to take action.

“Now the @ncaa needs to strip him of every award, title, and record he stole from a deserving female athlete,” she wrote.

Of course, World Aquatics and the NCAA are separate organizations, and World Aquatics holds no power over college sports.

On the other hand, World Aquatics is a vast, international organization that governs thousands of swimmers and competitions, and the rules they put in place are not insignificant.

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