NEWNow you can listen to Pak Gazette articles!
Before the infamous tie of Lia Thomas with Riley Gaines in the NCAA Championship of 2022, the female swimmers of the Ivy League and their families witnessed the impact that the former swimmer of the University of Pennsylvania had on sport, closely.
In a Tri of the regular season against Yale and Dartmouth on January 8, 2022, Thomas won the 200 freestyle and 500 Freestyle.
CLICK HERE for more sports coverage at Foxnews.com
Lia Thomas of the University of Pennsylvania competes in a freestyle event against Yale and Dartmouth in Sheer Pool on the Penn campus on January 8, 2022 in Philadelphia. (Hunter Martin/Getty images)
That was the first time that Kim Jones, mother of Yale’s former female swimmer, Raime Jones, saw Thomas swim in person.
“Oh my God, I can’t, I mean, was huge. He felt like a joke,” Kim Jones told Pak Gazette Digital. “He took everything inside, not to cry … You think someone will stop this nonsense, and then see him develop, he felt like the twilight zone.”
Jones and his daughter knew that Thomas would be in the match. But then, seeing it in real time triggered an emotional reaction of the whole family.
“My daughter was very annoying. He had spent days preparing to face a man,” Jones said. “My daughter was 6 feet high and wide, very athletic, and simply eclipsed her completely, both in the width of her shoulders and in her height.”
“No one thought it was real, but no one could stop him. You felt that you were seeing a fugitive train and I remember leaving the facilities and breaking crying.”
But for Kim Jones, seeing Thomas beat his daughter in that encounter was not the end or the beginning, of the emotional toll that the situation already gave her her family.
“The girls had already been taken to mandatory meetings throughout the Ivy League, and were really intimidated and silenced,” Jones said. “They had reached the meetings and told them: ‘Do not talk to the media. This is not your fight. Let the men in charge of the NCAA decide what to do. Your school and your league have already determined their position, you enrolled for this.’ There was a lot of gas lighting.
“They even said ‘it was your job to keep your families quiet.”
Pak Gazette Digital has communicated with Yale, Upenn and the Ivy League to comment.
Jones recalled an alleged useless phone call with a representative of the American Union of Civil Libertads (ACLU), where he tried to declare his case, but he was supposedly told that if “I did not agree with” Thomas competing against women, she “could always write a letter.” Pak Gazette Digital has communicated with ACLU to comment.
“And I remember hanging and thinking: ‘You have no idea what I could do,'” he said.
Then Jones began a mission to achieve consequences.
He began writing anonymous opinion articles about the situation, while encouraging other Ivy League parents to do the same. But she was not satisfied.
“I knew an organization should exist,” Jones said.
That opportunity occurred weeks after the controversial appearance in the NCAA de Thomas Championship, where the Athlete Trans won the 500 female freestyle and tied with gaines in the freestyle of 200.
Then, Gaines herself helped connect Jones with another person with the same idea, former women’s swimmer from Arizona University, Marshi Smith. Smith had been watching the controversy with Thomas develops from afar. But he still hit home as a former female swimmer.
The former UpenN swimmer reflects on being teammates with Lia Thomas in the middle of Trump’s administrator victory over the university
Smith, a former six-American times, was the 2005 NCAA champion in the 100 backs. But Smith, remembering the pressure and stress of preparing for that 2005 championship meeting, believes he paled compared to the experience of preparing to face a man.
“I can’t imagine having to walk on the deck, knowing that every media camera is outside, shooting the whole encounter because they know you are prepared to compete with a man,” Smith told Pak Gazette Digital. “We train with men throughout the season, we have the same coach, I am very aware of the differences between male and female swimmers, so knowing that and going to the deck would have been so defeat at that time.”
Smith’s experience to compete against men in a casual way and in practice pushed her aggressively the equity that Thomas is allowed to compete competitively at the university.
“Never in my mind would never be considered or judged seriously in comparison with any of my teammates,” said Smith. “The first time I imagined that the stage was with Lia Thomas in the NCAA.”
Then, together, Jones and Smith connected with the shared objective of activism. Smith had already rented the cabin space at the annual NCAA conference of that year, which took place in the hometown of Smith of Las Vegas. His initial plan was just to deliver flyers and wait for a conversation with some visiting athletics directors.
“[Kim] He said: “We’re going to do much more than that,” said Smith.
The two former female athletes made a three -day conference entitled “The birth of the icons.”
It was the inaugural event for the Independent Women’s Sports Council, and included panel interviews with women’s athletes, legal experts, medical experts and female tennis legend Martina Navratilova.
“I don’t know how we achieved that,” Jones said. “I think everything simply fell into its place.”
The group went on to finance the legal costs for the demand of Gaines vs. NCAA, who announced in March 2024. The demand, headed by Gaines, includes a list of plaintiffs from other NCAA athletes of other women who were affected by the participation of Thomas, and since then has expanded to include other plaintiffs impacted by men in the sport of women.
Icons is also financing individual demands against UPENN for three of the former teammates of Thomas, and a lawsuit against Mountain West and the San José State University about complaints that involve the volleyball player Trans Blaire Fleming.
