“Why Didn’t You Protect Me?” -Collegiate Swimmers Skewer Georgia Tech

Kaitlynn Wheeler has seen adversity. As a swimmer for the Women’s Swim Team from the University of Kentucky the competition in her freshman year was cut short by COVID. But athletes are resilient and goal oriented, so in her sophomore year she persisted through mask mandates, social distancing, and contact tracing. But her junior year presented her with a challenge that nothing could prepare her for.

In her own words:

“Georgia Tech not only failed to intervene, but also [knowingly] and intentionally increased our humiliation and pain. In a more shocking and harmful betrayal, with no warning, Georgia Tech University and the NCAA allowed Lia Thomas to use the locker room forcing us to undress in front of a man and with fully intact male genitalia. I first discovered that a man was being allowed to use the women’s locker room the day before the meet started by seeing it first hand. I was in the locker room changing out of my practice suit into my racing suit for a stinger, a pre-meet race. Suddenly the usual buzz of conversation in the locker room noticeably shifted to one of discomfort, awkwardness, and fear. I turned around exposed and bare while still inching out my racing suit, only to see a very large, six foot four man just ten feet from me. I realized it was Lia Thomas. I was completely shocked and caught off guard. I immediately reached for my towel. He put his belongings down near me and proceeded to pull down his pants and began changing in front of me. I was stuck in the most uncomfortable position of my life, with only half my racing suit pulled up in the presence of a naked man. This felt far from a normal experience. It felt extremely wrong. I glanced around at the other girls and saw they too were covering themselves, trying to huddle on the opposite side of the locker room and as far away from Thomas as they could get in that small space.”

Wheeler’s statement came as part of a hearing of the Senate Special Committee on the Protection of Women’s Sports, chaired by State Senator, Greg Dolezal. She was joined by other swimmers, Kylee Alons of North Carolina State, Reka Gyorgy of Virginia Tech and Riley Gaines of Kentucky.

It was clear in listening to their testimony that they came to air their grievances against Georgia Tech and President Angel Cabrera specifically.

Riley Gaines, who has become the face of the protect women’s sports movement in the US, did not mince words. When it was her turn to testify to the committee, she mentioned that she had written a letter to Mr. Cabrera that she had hoped to deliver in person, “but he didn’t have the gumption to show up here,” she said and proceeded to read the letter as part of her testimony.

“Why didn’t you protect me? There are images in my mind that I cannot erase. I wish that I could erase these images that day after day make me feel less safe as a woman.”

There is no objective way to defend against the scenarios these women were placed in. I feel the outrage they want me to feel as they recount their stories. If any of them were my daughter, I have to ask myself how would I react? In my core, if the statements today were true, I believe someone needs and deserves to be held accountable for what these women went through. So who?

Which means I also have to ask, is Georgia Tech really to blame here? I think it is a fair question, and one a judge and jury will likely get to wade into soon enough thanks to a lawsuit Gaines and more than a dozen college athletes have filed against the NCAA and the University System of Georgia (USG), which Georgia Tech is part of.

Here at Peach Pundit we often engage in wild speculation, which is what I will do here in the role of devil’s advocate as we look at reasons why Angel Cabrera wasn’t there today. I am not an attorney, but I have been around enough of them to know that if you are the defendant in a lawsuit, you don’t offer public comments until your day in court. With pending litigation against GT, it would be a bone-headed move to testify in front of a Senate committee. It stands to reason that Mr. Cabrera is wise not to get into the details of a situation that is the subject of pending litigation.

Another question that comes to mind is how much control did Georgia Tech have over the event? Yes, it was their venue, but my understanding from previous things I have read is that it was not staffed by Georgia Tech employees but was staffed by NCAA employees. If it wasn’t a meet run by GT, how could they have intervened when their governing body was calling the shots?

Gaines, Wheeler, Alons, and Gyorgy have every right to feel abused for what they went through. And who is to blame will ultimately be decided inside a courtroom when the testimony is under oath, which is the appropriate place to do so. I just hope the correct people are held accountable.