Riley Gaines: “I Left There With No Trophy” After Tie With Lia Thomas
University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines continues to speak out about the effects of transgender participation in collegiate sports, specifically Lia Thomas’ appearance at the recent NCAA Championships. Here is what she said previously about the issue.
In the 200 freestyle final at the NCAA Women’s Championships last month, Kentucky senior Riley Gaines finished tied for fifth with Penn’s Lia Thomas, the transgender swimmer who was the center of attention at the meet because she was allowed to compete against cisgender females under NCAA rules. Thomas was the NCAA champion in the 500 free, and she was favored to win the 200 free as well, but she finished almost a second-and-a-half off her best time and more than two seconds behind race winner Taylor Ruck.
After that race, Thomas and Gaines shared the fifth-place podium, but Gaines said that Thomas was given the only fifth-place trophy for the event. Gaines told The Daily Wire that an NCAA representative told her, “Hey, I just want to let you know, we only have one fifth place trophy, so yours will be coming in the mail. We went ahead and gave the fifth place trophy to Lia, but you can pose on the podium with the sixth place trophy.”
Gaines said that she argued with the official about why Thomas would get the trophy instead of her. Even though the two swimmers tied, Thomas is listed ahead of Gaines on the official results page, which indicates that Thomas touched ahead of Gaines by less than one hundredth (too small a margin to be absolutely certain).
“It was a bit disheartening,” Gaines said, according to The Daily Wire. “It really was. I left the pool with no trophy. Not a big deal, but it was the goal that I had set all year.”
Gaines added that she became upset that it appeared the NCAA was prioritizing the transgender athlete over others. “It’s almost like they’re trying to back (transgender athletes) more than…90 to 95 % of the rest of the swimmers who are kind of bummed by and affected by the rules that were in place for Lia to swim,” she said.
Even though she was upset by the situation, Gaines made clear that she was not upset with Thomas personally. “I am in full support of her and full support of her transition and her swimming career and everything like that 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,” Gaines said.
Read more from The Daily Wire here.
NCAA are cowards. Pandering to the activists at the expense of the entire team. How pathetic. Riley deserved an honest response as to why Lia had the trophy. She’s brave to speak up against the NCAA
So you think transgender athletes should be erased? Make sure you include transgender males(females transitioning to men) as well because there’s a transgender male on the Yale team who swims with the women’s team. In fact why not expel all transgender athletes, male and female from all sports so that way, no one gets upset? That’s the ultimate goal. To erase Transgender people from society
There should be a separate category for anyone who transitioned for make it fair and equitable for all athletes. I support anyone on where they want to be, but biology does not lie #science
There shouldn’t be a separate category. They should just compete where they’re sex/gender is actually apart of.
This doesn’t work. F->M transgenders shouldn’t compete with females, due to the unfair advantage from the testosterone etc they take.
The only justifiable position is all trangenders compete as males.
If it’s so unfair, why haven’t any of them dominated any sport of any kind ever?
Our high school has a transgender male who has taken State Championship 2 yrs in row (large texas School). He even asked to compete as a male and State said no.
He competed as a wrestler.
Lia Thomas competed for men’s team. Here, post transition, she got beaten by four other genetic female swimmers. doesn’t that numb your argument that trans women always been genetic ones? They don’.t. IF we gave you a heap of female hormones, you’d be just as strong and muscley and have as much endurance as before? Seriously?
Sex and gender are two completely different things.
Gender and sex are identical.
Sex is science; gender is art.
Maybe you should read a genetics book.
No, George, but don’t worry, It’s way too complex for small minds.
They are absolutely not identical, who told you that? Gender is a human construct, meaning we made it up, just like the boogeyman and Santa, it’s EASY to prove as well. A biological creature’s sex relates to physical body parts that produce semen of some sort or that carry eggs and the ability to grow a fetus and birth an offspring. You are confused due to peer pressure from dead people.
Not in the ER with acute abdominal pain.
They can’t win if they compete in their own sex/gender category
Except Lia Thomas did compete quite well prior to transitioning. Do the research. Here, she was beaten by four other women. did you read story? no? miss that part?
The deciding factor should be whether you have a Y chromosome or not.
This sounds like a simple solution, right? But it would not work in every case. Girls with Turners syndrome are almost all born with a single ‘X’ chromosome, rather than XX (2X’s) for the typical female chromosome configuration. A small number of turners girls are considered ‘mosaic’ because they have some single X and some XY chromosomes. They go not have the advantage of larger amounts of testosterone and muscle development that males do. Granted, it’s a pretty small number of girls. But it is a thing. A close family member has this condition. By all appearances, she’s a pretty normal girl.
This is not an issue about disorders of sexual development. Most males, like Lia, who want to compete in Women’s sports, have normal, healthy XY bodies.
How about born with a dick, born without a dick
Exactly
so you thought you were determinative of your gender identity and that tubular dangling items were special? Look up “intersex”. It’ll make your head spin, since you think biology is soooo simple.
No pun intended, but why? A sex chromosome has no impact over someone’s performance if they are overriding the chromosomes coding and putting the opposite hormones in their body. If it’s a cis male to a trans female, her hormone therapy during transition dumps all the testosterone and replaces it with estrogen. Maybe the deciding factor someday will be,instead of men’s/women’s sports it’ll be separated by hormone levels.
….SHE CAME 5TH! The trans athlete came 5th, 4 cis women beat her, apparently it was pretty fair since, one more time, the trans woman came 5th
Hey rocky…watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat
Lia has been intentionally throwing some of the races to combat all the negative attention received. This person is very manipulative and is enjoying this media circus and making a mockery out of woman’s sports. If this person was a true sportsman, this person would have let the other swimmer have the fifth place trophy especially after winning (stealing) so many events from the other swimmers. Lia also didn’t congratulation other swimmer that he/she competed against.
His name is Will Thomas. Don’t play into his little game by using the fake name “Lia”.
Transexualism is not a mental illness, nor a game. Make yourself a big badge with the word “trans” on it with a line through it. Wear it everywhere you go , so no one is confused about your point of view. Then someday when you are in grievous peril and 911 is called and the first responder( emt, cop, firefighter, pilot, nurse etc) happens to be trans, they can honor your loudly proclaimed beliefs, that you don’t want any trans people anywhere near you. Problem solved.
Your comments are defamatory and actionable. check out Lars Jorgensen, the former University of Kentucky women’s swim coach and close ally of Riley Gaines. He is now accused of raping several UK women swimmers on the team. Riley Gaines is silent. Why is that? I thought a trans swimmer, beaten by four other women in a heralded 200 free was the threat to women’s sports. For the record, one cannot “congratulation” other people.
HE tied for 5th, but your conclusion is also flawed that it was ‘pretty fair’.
You’re posturing if you don’t think that it was unfair to the women in 6th and lower positions, and every single other woman he’s beaten.
All you’ve really shown is that he’s a mediocre male athlete at best. But what keeps happening is how often the scrutiny is much lower when he does crappy things, like lay off on a race intentionally, just so that virtue-signalers have anomalies to point at like they’re a legitimate event.
It’s anything but ‘fair’. It’s been my observation that fairness isn’t even the goal here. The GOAL is to try and get the world to pretend up is down, science is a vote, value is in skin, and that men and women are interchangeable.
The goal is insanity.
I bet you don’t even have an honest answer, but I’ll ask:
Would it ALSO be ‘fair’ if he competed against other males?
And why are you okay with GUYS hitting GIRLS in sports in general, I wonder.
Why are you okay with Lars Jorgensen, former U of Kentucky women’s swim coach and close ally of Riley Gaines, now being accused of raping several female swim team members.. Is that honest enough for you?
Will Thomas, pretending to be a woman, decided to not win to throw smoke. He threw the race. He came in fifth, because he laid back. He’s a cheat. He probably had a bet on the woman who won the race.
Except Thomas then knocked out the 6th place winner which would have also gone home with a trophy.
Oh how dare you give facts..it confuses them so. Their argument is that it’s unfair because a trans woman will always beat a genetic one..That , of course is utterly wrong.
Do you know what
intersex” means??? hundreds of thousands of intersex people born every year, presumably created by gawd and going against simplistic notions about biology from the unschooled..look it up. How would you torture those folks?
Nothing you said has anything to do with the content of Maura’s post. Please read her comment again and respond to what Maura actually said.
It’s all relevant u can’t talk about teams athletes without talking about biology but good try
I think you responded to the wrong post, Waldo. Your comment makes no sense within the context of what I said.
see ‘intersex”….if you think you know biology
Thats correct. I was simply commenting on the lazy answer the NCAA gave Riley in why Lia got to stand w the 5th place trophy and not her. That’s why i called them “cowards”. It was clear that the NCAA gave priority to Lia because of her being Trans even though the two swimmers tied for 5th. So doesn’t that throw the whole equality equation out the door???
Just make your statements and let others comments alone.
You people just don’t learn. You try to take it to the extreme. Men should not be allowed to compete when they have an advantage over a gender they are not apart of. Funny how when women compete with men no one complains because 1. they don’t do it and 2. because they are at a disadvantage. Also, ask yourself why that transgender male at Yale isn’t on the men’s team? It’s a man right? Probably because it wouldn’t have a chance in hell of coming close to competing. But then again, people like you don’t know how logic works.
This athlete at Yale has not yet taken any testosterone treatments at all, so this athlete is still a real girl. She has always been a very exceptional female swimmer and just barely missed making the NCAA championships last year before she even announced she was going to transition. Thus, her slight improvement over last year is just the result of her having worked very hard to improve herself, just like all other female swimmers. Please do not lump her into the same category as Lia Thomas. Personally, I hope she delays hormone treatments for another year so we can see what she can do with another year of training.
So let me get this right ? Lia Thomas is just a man who says he’s a woman now ???
Whoa what an over dramatic way to put stars your false opinion. Not for nothing but since when did democracy mean for the few instead of the many. YOUR the very few yoyr exceptions to the rule. Why should the majority bend to your will instead of u bending to ours. U chose to be trans we didn’t n we the majority owe you the fringe Nothing not one day thing. Ur sacrifices r urs alone the majority will not bend to the will of the few ever. Sorry not sorry
Ur——->>> you’re
Come on, it doesn’t take any more energy to type it out. And, maybe someone will take you seriously, too.
Andy, it’s hard to take anyone who is a grammar nazi, seriously If that’s the best you have to offer, nothing you say is of any interest to most people.
Let transgender athletes compete against other transgender athletes. Let them have their own Olympics and what ever. This has gotten way out of control.
Get rid of of all this transgender garbage
Transgender athletes can create their own sports teams and compete equally with each other. Women are being erased, when we are reduced to ‘cis-gender’.
Not erasing trans . But that bio female iS swimming w her biological teammates. Which is reasonable. Liar Thomas should be swimming w the boys
Your way off base. I never said erase transgender, you did. Funny how that works. I think that Riley deserved to stand up there holding the 5th place trophy with LIA but the NCAA are too cowardly and afraid of the overreacting activists crowd so they basically told Riley to stand down. Tell me what is “fair” about that or “equal”….about that? You can save your pontificating for somebody else.
I never said transgender athletes should be “erased”, you did. Funny how that works. I believe that Riley had every right to stand up there holding the 5th place trophy along with Lia. But the NCAA told Riley to stand down. Please by all means tell me what is fair and equal about that. Clearly the NCAA prioritized Lia over Riley simply for being transgender.
Trangender athletes don’t need to be erased. They just have to compete with males.
If you’re M->F then you have an unfair advantage against females due to being originally male.
If you’re F->M you have an unfair advantage against females because of the drugs you take to make you superficially more male.
It’s really quite simple.
That works for me,yah
Yes, go ahead and “erase” them – all of them.
They are not winning.. and a lot of them actually compete with women… stop always being so over the top dramatic.. ppl fighting for women’s sports dont want to erase trans ppl.. we just want women’s sport to stay fair.. so calm the f down…
Sounds like your mad at something. She got to swim and win. Maybe like baseball an asterisk should be used? Everyone knows its not a secret protected by HIPPA
That’s highly illogical. Wanting sports to be fair for biological females isn’t the same as wanting to erase transgenders from society. That literally makes zero sense.
You’re missing the point. Crying anti trans is a meaningless and manipulative argument used by the media and others. This isn’t a trans issue. It’s an issue of fairness and having a biological mail who has gone through make puberty and has obvious physical advantages take advantage of the system. Lia is a bad person enjoying this media circus and a poor sport. There is all this talk about how the team is forced to support Lia. I don’t see Lia being supportive of the other team members that he is stealing those wins and titles from.
so trans-identified females swim on the women’s team AND trans-identified males also swim on the women’s teams? Do men have to make any accommodation for Trans inclusion or does that all fall on women?
how about as men they swim with their equals and stop bullying women???
Great idea!!
How very silly and hysterical. No, we just want gender-dysphoric males to stop cheating. But that’s the trans playbook, isn’t it? Cheating.
You e missed the point completely
No, that’s not the goal. The goal is to make athletics as fair as possible. I support transgender males and females, and I’m happy that there are options for these people to live in the body they feel most comfortable in (pardon that wording). However, there are innate biological differences between biological males and females, and in some cases this can give one an advantage. This is not true in all cases, but how do wee determine whether an athlete has an advantage due to biology. At this point, it’s not possible. This is not about discrimination against transgender people. It’s about fairness in an athletic event.
Compete in the category you were born in or make a totally separate category for transgender. It’s not fair to women to have a man competing with then
Thanks for your victimization and woke politics. No one is “erasing” transgender athletes. We have biological advantages as men, and therefore we have men compete against men and women compete against women. Just because someone feels they’re a women doesn’t make them a biological women. Facts are facts and if you weren’t an idiot you would know that by looking at chromosomes (XX = women; XY= men). Transgender athletes should compete in men’s divisions or if you want to be inclusive make a neutral division where trans-athletes can compete in fairness. However don’t bring your victim woke attitude and try and tell us its fair for a larger biological male athlete to compete in a women’s division.
Oh, cut it with the “erase” lingo. No one is trying to erase anyone. Athletes are entitled to compete with others of their sex. Lia Thomas had a long career doing so as a man. “She” is still a man.
Yes, I couldn’t have said it better!
The ultimate goal is same gender sports & fairness. Stop feeling sorry for people that cant compete against their own gender and want the upper hand. We used to call it cheating. Your tearing down their character by accepting this practice and behavior.
Agree! A tie means both get the trophy. The NCAA definitely seems to be pandering to media and pressure
There should be a trophy for fastest xx chromosomal and one for fastest xy chromosomal competitor. But don’t give the women’s trophy to someone that is mentally dissociative just because they refuse psychological help.
Homophobe Trump supporters are cowards. Pandering to people that hate instead of love at the expense of the entire human race how pathetic people like Riley deserve to understand the world belongs to everyone not just people like you and Trump she’s stupid to speak up rather than work harder on her swimming. Let’s blame anybody but ourselves. Sort of like Trump loses an election and blames it on the election
what does Trump have to do with this? Geez. Focus.
Your argument makes no sense. I’m not a Trump supporter, and I firmly believe Lia shouldn’t be allowed to compete in the female division. More woke victimization politics because you can’t make a coherent argument based in science or facts.
I think they should have been pictured holding the trophy together. That would have been fair.
What would be fair is men competing with other men and not with women they have an advantage over.
Cisgendered women…. You mean ACTUAL women. Thomas is not a she. Instead of trying to appease the activists how about just reporting the truth. This is why journalist lose respect and credibility.
It seems like you’re more interested in whining about journalists than actually discussing the real problem: the NCAA is allowing this to happen. They are to blame for women having to compete with a man.
The NCAA championship committee handled that SO WRONG! Most certainly appeared as though they favored the trans athlete. Why not withhold both trophies (after the podium pics) until both swimmers could receive them?? Send both 5th place trophies in the mail. That seems fair? What a joke…the NCAA needs to grow a pair.
Lia already had a trophy. If Riley didn’t have one yet, she should have gotten that one and they both go home with one
Lia shouldn’t have a women’s trophy because she’s a biological male. Simple solution.
He is a man with mental issues. Stop calling him a woman.
It’s a man!
They have 5th and 6th place trophies? Are those for participation?
Where does it stop. Male to female transgenders may one day dominate women’s sports. There will be a day when Lia Thomas’ will be winning all the medals and trophies.
Let that joker swim in the Hudson river
Shut up, you stupid cow!!
Accept your placing and bow your head.
Lia is just better than you – and always will be!
Go, Lia!!
Couldnt win as a male in competition, is the low self esteem and failure better now? 1st or 5th no matter, its a lie and still a failure as a male swimmer.
Lia can go back to the boys team where she belongs. ‘Nuff Said.
So if Lia was still a man and swimming on the mens team would you be cheering her on when she placed 400?? You are supporting her only because she is a transwomen not because she is a “better” swimmer.
I’m kinda surprised that I’m the first one to point out that you’re trolling.
Lia is a cheater, making a mockery out if women’s sports and trans people. His parents should be ashamed.
Come on! Get the transgender crap off the women’s swim team
There is NO such thing as cisgender. There is woman/female, and non-woman/female impersonators. It’s sad that you write it in this column, as if now women are a subspecies but transwomen are women. Uhm, no.
there are only two sexes ,male and female. Males do not belong in female sports nor should females play in male sports. Body compositions are different.
Thank your Democrats, the NCAA, you no longer matter.
I find it funny that this article fails to mention the numerous transphobic remarks that Gaines makes in her article. If one were fully supportive of Thomas and her transition they would not feel the need to stoop to such levels in order to complain about being uncomfortable sharing the locker room with her. One can not be in full support of her and her swimming career and make remarks such as these. She claims that the NCAA is the one saving face, but her remarks in this article state that she is doing just the same. Quit pretending like you are in support of Thomas and her transition while you are making statements such as this. In addition to that, I find it hard to take her seriously knowing that she put numerous individuals at risk by being unvaccinated yet continuing to go out to bars, ultimately subjecting several of her teammates to contracting covid. Take responsibility for your own actions before criticizing others.
At least she’s not a cheater like Lia.
Sick. Please go and do what you want in your private life but not impose competitive approval and accomplishment from others by unfair advantage. This is what 90% people in this country really feel NCAA.
This situation is INTOLERABLE. The imposition of MALE BODIES in female space is a clear indication that the NCAA thinks that women are not as important as men. It also is a clear indication that people are the NCAA are idiots.
A story from Abraham Lincoln is appropriate. Lincoln said to an audience, “If we treated a dog’s tail as a leg, how many legs would a dog have?” When the answer was “5”, Lincoln said “No, he still has 4 legs. You can call the tail a leg, but that does not make it a leg”.
You can call a man a woman if you are an idiot, but he is still a man.
As a physician, I am outraged at my profession. What has happened to objectivity? Let’s follow the science, shall we? I’m an expert in hormones and their effects on the human body. I am able to present irrefutable evidence that proves the unfair performance advantage a biological male has over biological females. However, let’s be honest, such evidence is unnecessary and truth is obvious to the naked eye. Simply observe the physique of Lia Thomas standing next to the biological females. Any non-medical person can see the difference. I’d happily debate any medical professional on the planet regarding this issue. Lowering testosterone a few months prior to competition does not negate the clear performance advantage of prior testosterone exposure
I qwish I could have seen this race!I wish I could have heard the cheers of encouragement for Riley during her swim. I can almost imagine the rafters shaking from the noise as spectatorts watched the clock too. Congrats Riley! You gave it your best! There has and always will be chaos to overcome. You just made History and you can always know you were in the right!
I believe that transgender athletes should compete in their biological category or not compete at all. Before you all start yelling at me, please consider there are people who cannot compete due to physical handicaps. So, if a transgender person chooses not to compete, at least they have a choice. Others do not.
I am not anti transgender. I wish only happiness for anyone who is not in a body they are uncomfortable in (for any reason).
This all represents the triumph of a form of Gnostic psychosis, a belief that subjectivity should determine reality rather than material reality itself. It is literally madness. When we as a culture wake up from this delusion, a lot of people will have a lot of explaining to do, to themselves as well as the rest of us. And since so much of this is resulting in the mutilation of young people, we will be living with the growing horror of its consequences for a long time to come.
Anytime there is a case like this where there is imperceptible tie(as in baseball) the benefit of doubt should always go to the biological female. That said, I do NOT believe biological men in any transfiguration should be competing in women’s sports. NEVER.
What is the most amazing fact of this article is thst Gaines portends now 2 years later she “lost” to a transgender swimmer Thomas, but in reality she and Thomas both lost to 4 other women swimmers in this race as they placed 5th together. What a way to exploit a nothing moment into a look at pitful me and make a career out of it.
A lot of the people making comments aren’t looking at the other side there were four girls that beat the transgender swimmer. And there’s not much chance that the Olympics are going to allow transgenders to compete in Olympic swimming. But when you’re working toward the Olympics you want people that are going to make you reach further than you’ve ever reached before to build your stamina and strength to win in a Olympic medal. The positive side of having a transgender compete with women can only help other women reach Higher Goals in their workouts. Now don’t get mad at me when I say this but a transgender is sort of a birth defect. And my mom taught me don’t disrespect somebody with birth defects. Be thankful that you were born normal.