Virginia swimmers unite, speak out after biological male pulls Lia Thomas, tries to join team

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ROANOKE, VA – The battle Penn swimmer Lia Thomas started nearly two years ago when the biological male swimmer proudly held firm to a NCAA women’s swimming national championship trophy took a twist Thursday in Virginia where 10 members of the Roanoke College women’s swim team stood up as a group to speak out for fairness in sports after a biological male attempted to join their team.

With their parents, supporters and the advocates in this fight — Riley Gaines and Paula Scanlan, a former teammate of Lia Thomas — in the crowd inside a downtown Roanoke hotel, the 10 members became the first group of college teammates to speak out as a unit.

Members of the Roanoke College women’s swim team attend a press conference.  (OutKick)

Teammate after teammate walked up to the podium with a similar message: the women had been "demoralized" and hurt by their Division III school after they returned to campus this fall knowing a biological male, who is not being named out of the wishes of the team, would be attempting to pull a Lia Thomas.

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"My feelings, our team’s feelings and comfort were blatantly ignored and only one athlete was prioritized," 19-year-old Kate Pearson, one of the team’s three captains said.

Bailey Gallagher, 20, who is the senior captain, echoed a similar message of the drama that played out at the private liberal arts school of nearly 1,900 in Salem, VA.

"I felt unheard and unseen. Our comfort was undervalued and discarded. Numerous times we asked the school for support. Each and every time we were told to deal with it