Riley Gaines: The Integrity of Women’s Sports Is Completely Lost at This Point | CLIP | Facts Matter

Female athletes, we were robbed of a lot of opportunities. We were told that Thomas would compete with the females, and I was shocked. I had no idea what to expect, what this would look like, and I think all of the girls were kind of in the same boat. We get to the point where we're racing, I saw Thomas win a national title that first day, which is just heartbreaking. Watching that happen, the tears of the 9th and 17th place finishers who missed out on being named an All-American, the extreme discomfort in the locker room, there's just grumbles of anger and frustration. The female category was created to ensure fairness, because men would win every time if it weren't the case. And so to now infiltrate that back in, I can't even believe I have to sit here and kind of explain why this is wrong. Ryla Gaines, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity. So can you sort of set the stage for the audience? When did you start swimming? What got you into it, and what was your career like up until, let's say, 2022? Yes, so I started swimming when I was about five years old. I really started getting competitive and really embracing swimming when I was eight, so that meant I was swimming about two hours every single day in second grade. So this has been a lifelong commitment with tons of sacrifices. In college, you swim five and a half hours every single day, and two and a half of those hours are before eight a.m. So it's a lot that goes into it, a lot of sacrifices. But up until, you know, I would say 2021, completely normal. I was, you know, developing as a swimmer, getting really competitive and really great at the national level, and then COVID. So that took a full year. We get back from COVID, and then we're dealing with having males compete in our sport. And so I really feel like the past two years, we were, and when I say we, I mean female athletes, we were robbed of a lot of opportunities. So all that work, after COVID, kind of the lockdown pressures kind of lift a little bit. How does it play out? How does the first competition against biological males begin? I didn't even really know who Leah Thomas was until November of 2022. You know, this person, this senior, starts posting the fastest times in the nation. And you look at this, and you're like, wow, this is a person I've never heard of. They're a senior, so they've been around, and they're dominating. But at the time, I had no inclination that Thomas was formerly Will Thomas, who swam three years on the men's side. And like I said, this was November, which was the middle of our season. And once I found out that Leah Thomas was formerly a male, I was kind of relieved because I thought, oh, it makes sense. You know, it makes sense how these times that are so incredible are being swam. And I thought, there's no way the NCAA will let this happen to where females are competing against this person who's 6'4 and has male advantages. But I was clearly proven wrong. About three weeks before our national championships, we were told that Thomas would compete with the females. And I was shocked. I had no idea what to expect, what this would look like. And I think all of the girls were kind of in the same boat. We just really had no clue what this was going to be because it was something that happened so discreetly and so quick. But then we get to the point where we're racing. I saw Thomas win a national title that first day, which is just heartbreaking. Watching that happen, the tears of the 9th and 17th place finishers who missed out on being named an All-American, the extreme discomfort in the locker room. You know, there's just grumbles of anger and frustration. But no one really, we just weren't sure how to take action. And I feel like that's still something a lot of female athletes are facing. I wanted to back up a little bit. So when you started seeing those times and Leah at the top, what was the difference in times between number one, which is her, I guess, or him, and number two? So in the 500-yard freestyle, Thomas posted a time of 4.34, which is 4 minutes and 34 seconds. And I think the next person was about 4.37. So that's three seconds. And in swimming, three seconds is a lot. Yes. At the Olympic level, you know, people are separated by a hundredth of a second. And so to be sweeping the field by two, three seconds, that's a big amount. You actually tied that race, right? Yes. Can you sort of break down how that played out after the race? So we tied, which in swimming is pretty rare. They don't account for it in terms of trophies and places and things like that. And so once we tied, we go behind the podium where they distribute the trophies. And the NCAA official looked at me and said, great swim. We only have one trophy. So we're going to give it to Thomas. Yours will come in the mail. And so I'm understanding of the fact they only have one, but I asked him, I was like, okay, but can I ask you why you're adamant on giving that trophy to Thomas? And he said, well, we're just doing it in chronological order. And so I was like, it was at this point, I realized that, you know, they're trying to save face here. And so I asked him, you know, what are we being chronological about? And he looked at me and said, for photo purposes, Thomas is going to hold the trophy. Yours will come in the mail. You can hold the sixth place trophy. And so this is when I realized, you know, not only are we being forced to compete against men, females are being sidelined to men. And I realized, you know, I kept waiting and waiting for someone to say something. But once the circumstance happened, I realized, you know, like, it's got to be me. Like if no one's going to do it, I for sure am because this is wrong. Before I get getting to your outspokenness, I wanted to circle back to the locker room. How is that situation? I can imagine that being really awkward. Yeah, it's extremely uncomfortable. As females, we should at least have a say in, you know, getting completely naked in front of a male and having to see male parts. You know, those are things a couple years ago that would be sexual harassment. And now it's, you know, happening where we weren't forewarned. And how in the world have we gotten to a point where we're not even letting the females know there will be a naked male in the locker room, a naked male who still has sexual attraction towards females? It's incredibly uncomfortable. It's disrespectful. You know, there are certain girls I've talked with who have faced sexual trauma in the past. And seeing this, it's triggered, you know, a complete rehash of what they've had to go through, actual conversations I've had with people. And so, you know, to be in that position, it's absolutely insane. Like, you would think that this is something that we wouldn't allow. But now, rather than that being sexual harassment, this new Title IX, Biden administration's Title IX, it's sexual harassment to refer to a transgender as their wrong pronouns. You're the sexual harasser. Yeah, that's what, yeah, exactly. And so we've gotten to the point where we're, we're pushing that rather than protecting females. From your discussions on the back end, you know, you've been swimming since you were five, swimming more towards on the competitive track since you were eight, you said, I'm sure you know the community very well. Very well. What is the, not, let's say consensus, but like, what's the general feeling here? Yeah, it's how I'm speaking it. I think a lot of people are threatened. You know, they're told by their universities or their athletic department that they're not allowed to speak up or they'll lose their scholarship. They'll never get a job if they speak up. All these different things that are weighing on people and they're scared. And I've been fortunate enough at the University of Kentucky that I've had tons of support, which I'm now realizing is a complete anomaly. I think it speaks volumes on my school. I think it speaks volumes on the Southeastern Conference, especially in comparison to the Ivy League, who actually has, I have an email they sent that said to their Ivy League swimmers that said, if you feel uncomfortable seeing male genitalia in the locker room, they have counseling options you could seek. And so you're making females feel crazy for not wanting to see male parts. That's exactly what's happening. But majority of people feel exactly how I feel. Obviously, I can't speak for absolutely everyone, but I can speak for 95% of us. So you're saying that on the back end at UK.