NCAA swimmer blames Lia Thomas for taking spot in championship finals

metroweekly.com:

an open letter posted to her private Instagram account, Reka Gyorgy, who previously competed for her home country of Hungary in the 200-meter backstroke at the 2016 Summer Olympics, blamed the NCAA for its “decision to let someone who is not a biological female compete” in women’s swimming events, according to Fox News.“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,” the post read. “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.

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 wrote. “On the other hand, I would like to critique the NCAA rules that allow her to compete against us, who are biologically women.”Gyorgy said she hoped the NCAA would change the rules to ensure that transgender females cannot compete against cisgender females, saying that allowing them to do so “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 wrote. “I know you could say I had the opportunity to swim faster and make the top 16, but this situation makes it a bit different and I can’t help but be.