Gaines joined theUniversity 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 2021NCAA Women's Swimming & Diving Championships, coming seventh in the 200 freestyle race and winning a silver medal in the4 × 200 yd freestyle relay; she made the All-SEC First Team that year.[17][8] She was the 2022 SEC Women's Swimming and Diving Scholar-Athlete of the Year.[18][19][20]
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 theUniversity of Kentucky in the 200-yard freestyle at the NCAA championship (her final competitive event race), Gaines tied for fifth place withUniversity of Pennsylvania swimmerLia Thomas, who subsequently became the first openly trans woman champion in the NCAA women's division after winning the 500-yard freestyle later at the same meet.[4][21] While Thomas held the fifth-place trophy after the finish, Gaines held an equally-sized sixth-place trophy while waiting for another fifth-place trophy in the mail.[22][5] Immediately after the meet, Gaines said in an interview withThe 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."[23][24][25][26] Five days after her race against Thomas, an article about the race was published inThe Daily Wire. Gaines went on to appear on a number of conservative podcasts and television programs, including shows hosted byMarsha Blackburn andTucker Carlson. She was a speaker at theConservative Political Action Conference in 2022, where she was introduced byDonald Trump.[6]
In 2023, Gaines said that Thomas shared locker room space with her while still possessing "male genitalia".[27] This incident began her activism.[28]
In September 2022, Gaines supported the campaign ofRepublican US SenatorRand Paul by appearing in a TV ad for him, where she shared her criticism of trans women in women's sports.[32]
By January 2023, Gaines had participated in a small protest at theNCAA Convention, appeared in campaign advertisements for former US Senate candidate for the Republican Party,Herschel Walker, and spoken at aDonald Trump rally.[33]
In March 2023, Gaines was an invited speaker at aTexas 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 visitedSan Francisco State University for the student chapter event of the conservative political organizationTurning Point USA and spoke publicly about her campaign against transgender athletes in women's sports, which she referred to asspiritual warfare.[34][35] After the event concluded, protesters arrived.[28][34] Gaines was escorted by law enforcement officers to shelter in a classroom, where she stayed for three hours while protesters continued to demonstrate outside.[28][34]
Gaines speaking at the 2023 Young Women's Leadership Conference
On June 21, 2023, Gaines appeared as a witness at aSenate Judiciary Committee hearing focused on safeguarding civil rights for LGBTQ Americans and according toC-SPAN, shared her "own personal experience competing with trans swimmer Lia Thomas and having to share the same dressing room."[37][38]
Gaines accompanied Oklahoma GovernorKevin Stitt as he signed an executive order in August 2023 representingIndependent Women's Voice (IWV) which had developed model legislation the Oklahoma bill was based on.[39][40][41][42] 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."[39][40][43][44]
In November 2023, Gaines confirmed working withFIDE to prevent transgender women from playing inwomen's chess. This prompted criticism fromPinkNews for claiming that trans women had an advantage at chess.[45] 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."[46]
2024–present
In March 2024, Gaines was one of sixteen female student athletes who launched a legal case against theNational Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) over the participation of transgender athletes in women's sports.[47][48]
Gaines spoke at the annual Republican Lincoln Day Dinner in May 2024.[49]
Gaines (far right of the picture) at a Trump speech at the White House in February 2025
In February 2025, theUnited States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) launched a webpage on women's health that included videos featuring Gaines discussing her involvement withExecutive Order 14201, which conditions federal funding on compliance with policies restricting participation of transgender girls in girls' sports programs.[55]
Several outlets have noted that Gaines' activism often includes publicly targeting and insulting transgender individuals, including high school and middle school athletes, on social media to her 1.6 million followers.[6][5] In June 2025, gymnastSimone Biles responded to one of these instances onX, 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 ofbody shaming.[56][5] 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.[57]
Gaines' wider position has been expressed several times as being that sports is a gateway to invalidating the wider womanhood and public acceptance of transgender women, with Gaines quoted as saying "The gender ideology movement is a house of cards, and I believe it's lying on that sports issue (...) This will be the card that makes all of it crumble."[5][6]
In a January 2026 video on Instagram, Gaines praised the actions ofICE agents indetaining the five-year old Liam Conejo Ramos. Gaines warned her followers, “Do not let compassion, or what you believe to be compassion, cloud you or suspend you from thinking critically."[58]
Personal life
Gaines is aChristian and has stated that her faith has shaped her activism.[59][60] She graduated from the University of Kentucky in 2022 with a degree inhealth sciences. Her original plan was to become adentist.[61]
In 2022, Gaines married University of Kentucky swimmer Louis Barker after dating for three years.[62]
In June 2025, Gaines and Barker announced that they were expecting their first child.[63] Their daughter was born in October 2025.[64]
As of October 2025[update], Barker struggled to get his green card or citizenship because of his refusal to take the COVID vaccine; Riley deplored publicly the administrative hurdles.[65]
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