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Riley Gaines Tied Transgender Lia Thomas in NCAA Competition 

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Riley Gaines Tied Transgender Lia Thomas in NCAA Competition 

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Riley Gaines is an NCAA division 1 swimmer at the University of Kentucky. In 2022, Riley's senior year, she had punched a ticket to be third in the country in the 200 freestyle. The swimmer who was ranked first in the country was Lia Thomas, a transgender women, competing in their first ever women's competition. According to Riley Gains, Lia Thomas was a mediocre mens swimmer, only ranking 462nd nationally, before deciding to switch over to women's competition. In March of 2022, the NCAA announced that Lia Thomas would in fact be competing in the women. Thomas and Gaines compete in the 200 freestyle together, ultimately leading to a tie at the end of their race. The NCAA officials gave the first place trophy to Lia, for photo purposes they gave Gaines the sixth place trophy, but told her she must give it back. Gaines at the end of the night left with no trophy. LGBTQ in sports is already a controversial issue, but this is part of a larger issue; women will and currently are losing spots in their sport to transgender men. Women fought hard for their right to play sports, and are losing those rights in instances like this.

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Women were not allowed to compete in sports in the early 1900s, primarily because it would go against what women were put on this earth to do, reproduce. Women were told that if they did any type of demanding exercise, it would damage their uterus, making child birth very difficult. This soon changed when women were allowed to compete in the 1964 volleyball olympics. Although this was great for women, there was still a set back for them as there were many rules and regulations. Men didn't see this as a good thing and thought that women were "invading", so to distract this thought, women made sports more lady like. They would describe women's sports as "lady this" or "lady that" and wore lady like clothing such as skirts, dresses and even ribbon in their hair.

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Title IX, part of legislation that passed in 1972 in the Education Amendments, prohibits sex based discrimination in any education program that receives government financial assistance. This is perhaps the most important victory for women in sports and has changed the landscape of women’s sports forever. Today, every higher academic institution that meets criteria is required to have a Title IX Coordinator and Compliance officer.

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Brown University cut two mens teams (water polo and golf) as well as two women's teams (Gymnastics and Volleyball) to "donor-funded status". Amy Cohen, a co-captain on Brown University's gymnastics team believed these cuts in funding were unfair and would pose a greater challenge to the women's team. Cohen and 11 others filled a lawsuit against the institution and claimed they were violating Federal Civil Rights Law Title IX. Brown University has a history of providing more funding toward mens programs disproportionally relative to the sex of the student population.

Brown University believed they were just in this action because they were cutting an equal amount of teams, making it fair. This ended up not being the case because the courts ruled in favor of Cohen and found that Brown University was indeed in violation of Title IX in this action. Funding was restored to the teams and a path for Brown to be in compliance with the law was set forward. This is a huge win for women in sports because it showed the depth of the law. Equal opportunity is more than a number of teams, it is a fight for equality on a multitude of levels within women's sports.

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Transgender Women Eligible to Compete in Elite Women’s Aquatics Competitions

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Transgender Women Eligible to Compete in Elite Women’s Aquatics Competitions

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Lia Thomas, a transgender women, competing at University of Pennsylvania, in the women's swimming competition. In 2022, Lia was declared the first ever transgender to win a title after winning the 500 freestyle. This brings an unfair advantage to Lia, born a biological male that began their transition in 2019, which is only three years before her first competition as a "female".

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IAAF Has Stopped Semenya From Competition Because of Too High Testosterone Levels

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IAAF Has Stopped Semenya From Competition Because of Too High Testosterone Levels

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South African runner, Mokgadi Caster Semenya, won the 800m gold world championship in 2009. Many people questioned Semenya about her classification as a female. This is when the Hyperandrogenism test was created and allowed a "fair" opportunity for women. This test will measure the number of androgens and level of testosterone in the body. If testosterone levels were below the "male average" then women could compete in women's sports, if not, they were not allowed to compete. Mokgadi was born a female, just with a high level of testosterone, but many questioned if this was true. She was given multiple test throughout her career to identify her "true" sex. Although Semenya was born a female, she was criticized by athletes and media, being dubbed unfair. She had to fight to compete as a women that was born a women.