Swimmer Who Tied Lia Thomas Says NCAA Favored Lia to Hold the Trophy over Her

EXCERPT:

GAINES: “But, yeah, like you said, me and Lia just recently tied at the NCAA championships, and honestly, I think the NCAA handled everything extremely poorly, starting from when we finished and I went behind the podium to collect my fifth place trophy, and they kind of blatantly told me that Lia would hold the fifth place trophy and that I could pose with the sixth place trophy for photos and would be mailed a fifth place trophy in the mail."
CARLSON: "So not only are they allowing a biological male to compete in the women’s competition, they are promoting that male over biological females who are competing. That’s what I’m reading from what you said."
GAINES: "Right. And when I kind of questioned it, you know, I asked him, 'Is there a reason why you're giving Lia the trophy,' he just explained to me that, 'We're giving it in chronological order.' And I questioned him again, you know, 'What does that mean? We tied. What are we being chronological about?' And he kind blatantly said, 'We'll just give the trophy to Lia. We respect and remark your swim, but Lia needs to hold the trophy.'"