A Virginia Tech swimmer blasted the NCAA over its rule allowing transgender women to compete against biological women after she came up short in a championship qualifying race that was dominated by University of Pennsylvania transgender swimmer Lia Thomas.
Reka Gyorgy leveled the criticism in a post to her private Instagram account after missing the cut on Thursday to compete in the finals of the 500 free at the NCAA Championships, Fox News reported.
“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,” Gyorgy said of the rule that has received considerable scrutiny since Thomas has smashed records in her first season competing at the collegiate level as a transgender woman.
Gyorgy also placed blame on Thomas for her failure to qualify. The Virginia Tech swimmer said she felt the last spot to get into the final was taken from her “because of the NCAA’s decision to let someone who is not a biological female compete.”
Thomas finished with a 4:33.82 in the preliminaries and ultimately took home the national women’s 500 free title when she won the finals race with a time of 4:33.24.
Gyorgy’s letter urged the college sports organization to amend its rule.
