An open letter penned by the Virginia Tech swimmer Reka Gyorgy that slams National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for the rules that allow transgender players to compete with women has become a debated topic on the social media.
Gyorgy missed out on competing in the finals of 500 freestyle at the NCAA competitions as the Transgender University of Penn swimmer Lia Thomas finished 4:33.82 in the preliminaries.
Gyorgy missed the cut-off to get into the consolation final and finished at 17th place. At the same time Lia Thomas went on to win the final race in the tournament with a time of 4:33.24.
A Good Student and An Accredited Swimmer
A look into the background of Gyorgy reveals that she has studied Human Development and Family Studies, General. Thereafter, she went on to work as a social worker with Warm Heart Village and also with Virginia Tech Adult Day Service. Not to miss the fact that she volunteered at Virginia Tech Sports Medicine.
Her LinkedIn bio further emphasizes on her credentials that state, "I am a student athlete at Virginia Tech. I have been representing Hokies for 6 years in the United States or internationally. I am going to graduate in May, 2022 in dual degree in Human Development and Psychology and minor in Disabilities Studies."
As reported in Meaww.com, this Virginia Tech swimmer wrote an open letter to NCAA and posted it on her Instagram profile. The letter reads , "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, 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. On the other hand, I would like to critique the NCAA rules that allow her to compete against us, who are biologically women."
"I'm writing this letter right now in hopes that the NCAA will open their eyes and change these rules in the future. It doesn't promote our sport in a good way and I think it is disrespectful against the biologically female swimmers who are competing in the NCAA," she added.
The sports enthusiasts have come out in open to debate upon the controversy that has surfaced with Gyorgy confronting NCAA on the existing rules wherein biologically female swimmers are competing against transgender swimmers.
A Twitter user while expressing his views wrote, "Replying to @ClownBasket Tylor Mathieu, JR, Florida does not get to swim in the A final. Réka György, Va Tech does not get to swim in the B Final @NCAA you are an embarrassment and you have taken opportunity from women.
Another twitter user stated, "Réka György blaming the 1 trans woman for supposedly bumping her from the top 16 at NCAAS is a choice What about everyone else? Are her cis competitors invisible? Only the trans person is visible? what do we call this?"
They were competing fairly. Reka's problem with Lia is that Lia has the physical advantages of a male, and that isn't fair.
— ♀ï¸Jennifer Gingrich #KeepPrisonsSingleSex (@fem_mb) March 21, 2022
It isn't really hard to understand.
