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 second in the 4 × 200 yd freestyle relay and seventh in the 200 freestyle race; she made the All-SEC First Team that year.[15] In 2021, she qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials.[7] She was the 2022 Southeastern Conference Women's Swimming and Diving Scholar-Athlete of the Year.[16][17][18]
Following on from her earlier promising results at SEC events, Gaines was less successful at collegiate and national level, and she was never able to qualify for an Olympic Games, or for a Pan-Pacific or World Aquatics Championship despite numerous attempts to do so. Her highest ranking event finish nationally was a 5th place in the NCAA WD1 Championship 200yds Freestyle Final in March 2022. She was invited to a tryout for a 2024 Olympic qualification event in 2021, but failed to qualify for the event proper. In April 2022, after the end of her collegiate career, she subsequently retired from competitive swimming.
In March 2022, while swimming for the University of Kentucky in the 200-yard NCAA freestyle championship (her final competitive event race before retiring from the sport), 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.[5][19] Gaines said that Thomas shared locker room space with her while still intact with "male genitalia" and that the championship trophy was to be given to Thomas for "photo purposes" and that Gaines was expected to go empty handed while waiting for her trophy in the mail.[20] This incident began her activism.[21]
In September 2022, Gaines supported the campaign of US Senator Rand Paul by appearing in a TV ad for him, where she shared her criticism of trans women in women's sports.[25]
By January 2023, Gaines had participated in a small protest at the NCAA Convention, appeared in campaign advertisements for former US Senate candidate Herschel Walker, and spoken at a Donald Trump rally.[26]
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.[5]
In April 2023, Gaines visited San Francisco State University for a Turning Point USA student chapter event and spoke publicly about her campaign against transgender athletes in women's sports.[27][28] After the event concluded, protesters arrived.[21][27] Gaines was escorted by law enforcement officers to shelter in a classroom, where she stayed for three hours while protesters continued to demonstrate outside.[21][27] After the event, Gaines said she had been physically struck twice by a person during the protest.[24][21]
Gaines speaking at the 2023 Young Women's Leadership Conference
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."[29][30]
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.[31][32][33][34] 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."[31][32][35][36]
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.[37] 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.”[38]
In March 2024, Gaines was one of sixteen female student athletes who launched a legal case against the National Collegiate Athletic Association over the participation of transgender athletes in women's sports.[39][40]
In August 2024, Gaines announced the launch of the "Riley Gaines Center" at the Leadership Institute in Arlington, Virginia.[41][42]
Personal life
Gaines is a Christian and has stated that her faith has shaped her activism.[43][44]
She started dating British swimmer Louis Barker after meeting at the University of Kentucky in 2019, and they married in 2022.[45]
↑ Michael, Murphy (February 22, 2017). "Riley Gaines three-peats -- twice: Station Camp junior wins 100 free, 100 fly for third year in a row". The Tennessean. pp.M.4. ISSN1053-6590. ProQuest1870507109
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