Last week Riley Gaines came to Nebraska. Who is Riley Gaines? Riley Gaines is one of America’s most decorated female swimmers. Swimming for the University of Kentucky, she became a 12-time All-American as well as the SEC Female Scholar-Athlete of 2022. However, she has begun speaking around the country in support of women’s sports and against transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.
At the 2022 NCAA Swimming and Diving national championships Riley Gaines found herself having to compete against a certain biological male athlete in her events which were supposed to be reserved for female athletes. Riley Gaines tied for fifth place in the 200-meter freestyle event with a University of Pennsylvania swimmer, Lia Thomas, a transgender athlete. Then,Thomas beat her in the 500-meter freestyle race, becoming the NCAA champion. Afterwards, Gaines filed a formal protest which seemed to fall on deaf ears.
Biological males participating in women’s sports as transgender athletes has now become a big problem for female athletes all across America. Many female athletes have now expressed that they are becoming disillusioned and disenfranchised from competing because of this new movement that is overtaking women’s sports.
