EXCLUSIVE: 3x Olympic Gold Medalist Says Swimming World Overwhelmingly Concerned About Fairness In Women’s Sports

The collegiate swimming world is “overwhelmingly” involved about equity in ladies’s sports activities, three-time Olympic gold medalist Rowdy Gaines stated Friday.

Gaines mentioned controversy surrounding transgender swimmer Lia Thomas and organic males in ladies’s sports activities throughout an interview with The Every day Wire on the NCAA Girls’s Swimming Championships in Atlanta, Georgia.

The transgender College of Pennsylvania swimmer clocked in at 4:33:24 within the ladies’s 500 freestyle finals Thursday night, ending first forward of the College of Virginia’s Emma Weyant, a freshman.

Thomas will compete within the ladies’s 200 freestyle Friday night and the 100 freestyle on Saturday, and is slated to complete second within the 200 freestyle and tenth within the 100 freestyle.

“We’re in uncharted territory for positive,” stated Gaines, an ESPN swimming analyst. “That is new.”

Evening one on the @NCAA Girls’s Swimming and Diving Championship. The 200 Medley Relay includes a UVA staff that smashed the American Document at ACCs. Excited to be with ⁦@RowdyGaines⁩ and ⁦@ebeisel34⁩ all week. Our protection begins at 6 on ESPN3. pic.twitter.com/cJSKEAZTok

— Invoice Spaulding (@BillSpaulding) March 16, 2022

The three-time Olympic gold medalist stated that he has mentioned the current controversy with many members of the swimming world over the previous few months — coaches, swimmers, officers, attendees on the NCAA — and lots of of them are involved about organic males in ladies’s sports activities.

“I’m discovering there’s numerous phrases that come up that, phrases just like the equity situation and never a stage enjoying area, hopeless, helpless feeling,” he stated, including that some individuals he has spoken with have articulated that they really feel it’s “a tragic day for the game.”

“However on the similar time, I believe most individuals don’t need to be distracted by what’s happening,” he continued. “They should concentrate on — put the blinders on, so to talk, and sort of concentrate on their job as a result of they will’t actually do something about what’s happening right here. They’re simply attempting to go daily and doing what they will do.”

“The overwhelming majority” of these whom he has spoken with are speaking about equity, he emphasised, noting, “It’s a equity situation.”

Lia Thomas has “adopted each rule and each protocol” set ahead by officers, the Olympic swimmer insisted.

“You possibly can’t blame Lia Thomas,” he stated. “You possibly can blame the choice, however she’s doing what she’s been given a proper to do.”

“I don’t know who it’s that makes these sort of selections,” he continued. “It’s not a straightforward resolution to make for anyone. None of us have ever skilled something like this. So I’ve to present the advantage of the doubt to the choice makers on this in addition to anyone else.”

It’s unlikely that the feminine swimmers would weigh in on current controversies through the precise NCAA occasions, he stated, since they’re so centered on their upcoming races.

“Now chances are you’ll hear loads subsequent week,” he predicted. “However this week, you recognize, all people’s acquired their nostril to grindstone.”

“You must perceive, these youngsters swim six to 10 miles a day, six days every week,” he stated. “Take into consideration operating six to 10 months, and also you’re swimming six to 10 miles. And so they’ve been doing it for eight months now, day in and time out, on prime of going to high school day-after-day.”

“If it was me, complete chaos might be happening round me, and I wouldn’t be listening to it as a result of I labored too laborious to get there,” he stated.

Gaines pushed again on criticisms of feminine swimmers who don’t converse out towards organic males collaborating of their sports activities.

“It’s not the ladies’ fault,” he stated. “Their job is to swim right here … their job is to carry out on the highest stage as a university athlete, as a scholar athlete. When did individuals inform them it was their job to talk up?”

As the daddy of 4 daughters and the grandfather to 5 grandchildren, Gaines stated he’s “delicate to this situation” and feels for “each side.” He described himself as a “dopey” onlooker who feedback on sports activities on TV.

“My job is basically simply to speak in regards to the race and analyze the races,” he stated. “However on the similar time, you recognize, I prefer to get a pulse of what persons are feeling.”

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