Female college athletes at a Virginia university held a press conference Thursday after being forced to swim with a transgender woman.
The Roanoke College Women’s Swim Team says they feel let down by their college and national officials after a former member of the men’s team joined their squad last month. The case bears strong similarities to that of Lia Thomas, who last year became the first trans athlete to win an NCAA Division I national championship.
At an event with Riley Gaines and the Independent Women’s Forum, the team demanded that the NCAA and USA Swimming allow transgender women to compete in women’s sports.
“I started swimming competitively when I was seven years old,” junior Susanna Price told the crowd. ‘This year was the first year of my life where swimming was emotionally draining. Knowing that biological males are allowed to participate in sports has been the most disheartening experience of my life.”
Sophomore Carter Satterfield said, “We call on the NCAA to protect female athletes and grant us fair play in sports – in every sport. We call on US Swimming to recognize that girls at every level deserve to know they are valuable enough to receive a fair race.”
The Roanoke College Women’s Swim Team held a press conference to speak out about being forced to swim with a transgender woman
The Roanoke College Women’s Swim Team says they feel let down by their college and national officials after a former member of the men’s team joined their squad last month
Sophomore Carter Satterfield said, “We call on the NCAA to protect female athletes and grant us fair play in sports – in every sport. We call on American swimming to recognize that girls at every level deserve to know they are valuable enough to be given a fair race’
Speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com, the three swim team captains previously described the stress of being told they had to confront the trans swimmer themselves and plead their case – only for the trans swimmer to tell them she felt suicidal and desperate to be included.
On Thursday, the trio were joined by other members of the team as they held a press conference at their university to call for greater clarity on the issues, backed by the Independent Women’s Forum and the Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS).
Both groups work together to represent female athletes and coaches and promote legislation to protect women’s sports. They also lobby the sport’s governing bodies to set guidelines.”
Riley Gaines, who was defeated by transgender swimmer Lia Thomas at last year’s NCAA Championships, also spoke at the news conference.
“I saw the tears, and I felt the extreme discomfort in the locker room, and I heard the whispers of anger and frustration from those girls who, like me and the swimmers on Roanoke’s team, worked their entire lives to get to that meet,” Gaines said of her experience fighting Thomas.
Kate Pearson, captain of the sophomore team, and her two co-captains – Lily Mullens, 20, the junior captain; and Bailey Gallagher, also 20, the senior captain, said they were shocked that the university left it up to them to decide how to address the issue, even asking them to confront the trans swimmer himself when they raised concerns about it revealing swimsuit.
Roanoke College told DailyMail.com that they never made a decision about allowing the trans swimmer to compete.
“This fall, a Roanoke College student who identifies as transgender (male to female) applied to join and compete on the women’s swim team,” a spokesperson said.
“While College leadership was reviewing NCAA and national athletic policy for eligibility, the student withdrew her request before a decision was made.”
The three women said the college’s position was news to them because they had always been told the swimmer was part of their team and that she had trained alongside them.
They said the council was dodging its responsibility.
The story began in early September, when students returned to the small private liberal arts college in Salem, Virginia.
At an event held Thursday with Riley Gaines and the Independent Women’s Forum, the team demanded that the NCAA and the USA Swimming Association allow transgender women to compete in women’s sports.
Kate Pearson (left), Lily Mullens (center) and Bailey Gallagher (right) told DailyMail.com they are speaking out to push all colleges and universities to come up with comprehensive plans for dealing with trans athletes – arguing that this was unfair to place the weight of decisions and actions on their shoulders
Riley Gaines was defeated by transgender swimmer Lia Thomas at last year’s NCAA championships. Thomas competed as a male swimmer for three years before returning as a female and beginning to break records in the pool
They knew that one of the members of the university’s swimming team, who had swum in the men’s competition two years earlier, had transferred last year and returned as a woman.
The swimmer was strong, finishing ninth as a man in the 500 freestyle in their conference, Division 3, Old Dominion Athletic Conference, and eighth in the 100 fly.
By comparison, Lia Thomas ranked 462nd as a male in her division, Division 1.
Under current NCAA rules, an individual must undergo testosterone suppression treatment for twelve months and provide serum testosterone level test results showing levels to be below the maximum for the sport.
But the rules are inconsistent and patchwork.
The International Olympic Committee said in November 2021 that it was up to individual sports to determine their own rules, abandoning its previous provision that trans women must suppress their testosterone levels for at least 12 months to compete.
In contrast, the governing body for athletics events, World Athletics, announced in March this year that they would ban athletes who have gone through so-called ‘male puberty’ from competing in women’s world rankings competitions. WA said the exclusion would apply to “male-to-female transgender athletes who have gone through male puberty.”