A Virginia Tech swimmer has blasted the NCAA for allowing transgender women to compete against biological women and claimed her spot was stolen in a championship.
In a letter to the NCAA, Reka Gyorgy wrote “With all due respect, I would like to address something that is a problem in our sport right now and hurting athletes, especially female swimmers”.
Everyone has heard and known about transgender swimmer, Lia Thomas, and her case including all the issues and concerns that her situation brought into our sport. I’d like to point out that I respect and fully stand with Lia Thomas; I am convinced that she is no different than me or any other D1 swimmer who has woken up at 5am her entire life for morning practice.
Reka Gyorgy
“She has sacrificed family vacations and holidays for a competition. She has pushed herself to the limit to be the best athlete she could be. She is doing what she is passionate about and deserves that right,” Gyorgy continued.
“On the other hand, I would like to critique the NCAA rules that allow her to compete against us, who are biologically women,” she added.
Gyorgy said she hopes “the NCAA will open their eyes and change these rules in the future. It doesn’t promote our sport in a good way and I think it is disrespectful against the biologically female swimmers who are competing in the NCAA”.
“It feels like the final spot was taken from me because of the NCAA’s decision to let someone who is not a biological female compete,” she explained.
Gyorgy had missed the cut-off to get into the consolation final in the 500 free. She finished in 17th place.
“The NCAA knew what was coming this past week. They knew opinions and minds will de divided and chose to do nothing,” she said about the authority.