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Riley Gaines
American swimmer and conservative activist (born 2000) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Riley Marie Gaines Barker[1] (née Gaines; born April 21, 2000)[2][3][4] is an American conservative political activist[5] and former collegiate swimmer known for campaigning against the participation of trans women in women's sports. A 12-time NCAA All-American,[6][7] she competed for the Kentucky Wildcats swim team in the Southeastern Conference before graduating and focusing on political activism.
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Since 2023, she has hosted the weekly OutKick and Fox Nation podcast Gaines for Girls.[8][9][10]
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Early life
Gaines was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee.[11] Her parents were active in sports. Her father, Brad Gaines, played football at Vanderbilt University and her mother, Telisha Gaines, played softball at Donelson Christian Academy and Austin Peay State University.[12] Gaines attended Station Camp High School in Gallatin, Tennessee.[13] As a junior, she won the 100-yard butterfly and 100-yard freestyle in the TISCA High School Swim & Dive Championship in Knoxville in 2017.[14] She was invited to a 2016 United States Olympic Trials event, but failed to qualify after placing 85th.[15]
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College athletics
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Gaines joined the University of Kentucky's swim team and made the All-SEC Freshman Team in 2019. She also made the All-SEC Second Team in 2019 and 2020. She participated in the 2021 NCAA Women's Swimming & Diving Championships, coming seventh in the 200 freestyle race and winning a silver medal in the 4 × 200 yd freestyle relay; she made the All-SEC First Team that year.[16][7] She was the 2022 SEC Women's Swimming and Diving Scholar-Athlete of the Year.[17][18][19]
Gaines' highest-ranking individual event finish nationally was 5th place in the NCAA WD1 Championship 200yds Freestyle Final in March 2022. She did not pursue a professional career after graduating from college in 2022.
In March 2022, while swimming for the University of Kentucky in the 200-yard NCAA freestyle championship (her final competitive event race), Gaines tied for fifth place with University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, who subsequently became the first openly trans woman champion in the NCAA women's division after winning the 500-yard freestyle later in the same event.[4][20] While Thomas held the fifth-place trophy after the finish, Gaines held a sixth-place trophy while waiting for another fifth-place trophy in the mail.[21] Immediately after the meet, Gaines said in an interview with The Daily Wire: "I am in full support of her and full support of her transition and her swimming career...because there's no doubt that she works hard too, but she's just abiding by the rules that the NCAA put in place, and that's the issue."[22][23][24][25]
In 2023, Gaines said that Thomas shared locker room space with her while still intact with "male genitalia".[26] This incident began her activism.[27]
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Activism and politics
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2022–2023
Gaines has advocated against the inclusion of transgender women in the women's division of sports, including by lobbying her state representatives in April 2022 to pass a law that would prohibit transgender women from participating in women's sports.[28][29][30]
In September 2022, Gaines supported the campaign of Republican US Senator Rand Paul by appearing in a TV ad for him, where she shared her criticism of trans women in women's sports.[31]
By January 2023, Gaines had participated in a small protest at the NCAA Convention, appeared in campaign advertisements for former US Senate candidate for the Republican Party, Herschel Walker, and spoken at a Donald Trump rally.[32]
In March 2023, Gaines was an invited speaker at a Texas Senate committee in support of legislation that would categorically prohibit transgender college athletes from competing in sports divisions that align with their gender identity.[4]
In April 2023, Gaines visited San Francisco State University for the student chapter event of the conservative political organization Turning Point USA and spoke publicly about her campaign against transgender athletes in women's sports, which she referred to as spiritual warfare.[33][34] After the event concluded, protesters arrived.[27][33] Gaines was escorted by law enforcement officers to shelter in a classroom, where she stayed for three hours while protesters continued to demonstrate outside.[27][33] After the event, Gaines said she had been physically struck twice by a person during the protest.[30][27]
On June 2, 2023, Gaines endorsed Republican Ron DeSantis in the 2024 US presidential election.[35]
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On June 21, 2023, Gaines appeared as a witness at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing focused on safeguarding civil rights for LGBTQ Americans and according to C-SPAN, shared her "own personal experience competing with trans swimmer Lia Thomas and having to share the same dressing room."[36][5]
Gaines accompanied Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt as he signed an executive order in August 2023 representing Independent Women's Voice (IWV) which had developed model legislation the Oklahoma bill was based on.[37][38][39][40] The executive order includes a variety of provisions, including a prohibition on transgender women and girls using bathrooms and locker rooms designated for women, a direction to state agencies to use sex assigned at birth to define male and female, as well as definitions for terms such as "man" and "woman."[37][38][41][42]
In November 2023, Gaines confirmed working with FIDE to prevent transgender women from playing in women's chess. This prompted criticism from PinkNews for claiming that trans women had an advantage at chess.[43] That month she also testified to the Ohio Senate Government Oversight Committee about her experiences competing with Thomas and on preventing trans women from competing in female sports in Ohio. The House would go on to pass Bill 68 that would "prevent trans athletes from participating in Ohio women’s sports and would block doctors from providing gender-affirming care to trans youth."[44]
2024–present
In March 2024, Gaines was one of 16 female student athletes who launched a legal case against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) over the participation of transgender athletes in women's sports.[45][46]
Gaines spoke at the annual Republican Lincoln Day Dinner in May 2024.[47]
After the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, she expressed her support for Trump's candidacy.[48] In July 2024, Gaines spoke at the Republican National Convention in support of Trump.[49]
In August 2024, Gaines announced the launch of the Riley Gaines Center at the Leadership Institute in Arlington, Virginia.[50][51]
On November 18, 2024, Gaines tweeted that she had voted for Trump.[52][non-primary source needed]
In February 2025, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a new webpage showcasing new guidance on women's health featuring videos with Gaines talking about her role helping with Executive Order 14201, which threatens to revoke federal funding from any elementary, secondary, and post-secondary institution that allows transgender girls to play on girls' teams.[53]
In June 2025, gymnast Simone Biles made a social media post on X calling Gaines "truly sick" and a "straight up sore loser" due to her advocacy against the participation of trans women in women's sports. Biles wrote that Gaines should "bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male." Gaines replied that she found Biles's comments "so disappointing" and accused her of body shaming.[54] Biles later posted an apology, saying that she should not have gotten "personal" with Gaines, and that she believes the current sports system does not adequately balance competitive equity with inclusion.[55]
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Personal life
Gaines is a Christian and has stated that her faith has shaped her activism.[56][57]
In 2022, Gaines married University of Kentucky swimmer Louis Barker after dating for three years.[58] In June 2025, Gaines and Barker announced that they were expecting their first child.[59]
She graduated from the University of Kentucky in 2022 with a degree in health sciences. Her original plan was to become a dentist.[60]
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Awards
Gaines has been presented with:
- 2022 Southeastern Conference Women's Swimming and Diving Scholar-Athlete of the Year[17]
- 2022 Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award[61]
References
External links
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