Riley Gaines went from being a decorated college swimmer to one of the most recognizable— and divisive — conservative speakers in America. Her name is now synonymous with the national debate over transgender athletes in women’s sports.
But before the television appearances, the podcast deal with Fox News, and the bestselling book, Gaines was a kid from Tennessee who just wanted to swim fast.
Here’s how she got from there to here.
Growing Up in a Sports Family
Riley Marie Gaines was born on April 21, 2000, and raised in Gallatin, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville. Sports were the family language. Her father, Brad Gaines, played football as a wide receiver at Vanderbilt University and was drafted by the Chicago Bears in 1988, though a severe leg injury ended his professional career before it started.
Her mother, Telisha, was a standout softball pitcher at Austin Peay State University, earning Ohio Valley Conference Pitcher of the Year honors in both 1987 and 1988. Riley grew up alongside three siblings —two sisters and a brother — all of whom played sports.
Riley started swimming at age four. By middle school she was training more than 20 hours a week, and her parents were driving her to meets across the region. She attended Station Camp High School in Gallatin, where she quickly established herself as one of Tennessee’s top prep swimmers.
As a junior in 2017, she won both the 100-yard butterfly and the 100-yard freestyle at the state championship meet. She was talented enough to earn an invitation to the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials at just 16 years old.
She placed 85th and didn’t qualify, but the experience confirmed that she belonged in the sport at a high level.
A Decorated Career at University of Kentucky
Gaines accepted a full athletic scholarship to the University of Kentucky, where she majored in biological sciences on a pre-dental track. Over four years with the Wildcats swim team (2018–2022), she became one of the most accomplished swimmers in the program’s history. She earned 12 NCAA All-American honors, was a five-time SEC champion, and qualified for the Olympic Trials twice.
During her senior season, she broke the SEC meet and conference record in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 1:51.51 — the 16th-fastest time in U.S. history at the time. She successfully defended her gold medal in the 200-yard freestyle at the SEC Championships as well.
Off the pool deck, she was recognized as the 2022 SEC Women’s Swimming and Diving Scholar-Athlete of the Year. By any measure, Gaines had a standout college swimming career. She was a team co-captain, a record-breaker, and a key contributor as Kentucky won its first-ever SEC team title in women’s swimming.
But it was her final competitive race that changed the trajectory of her life.
The Race That Changed Everything
In March 2022, at the NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships, Gaines swam the 200-yard freestyle — the last race of her college career. She tied for fifth place with Lia Thomas, a swimmer from the University of Pennsylvania. Thomas had transitioned and was the first openly transgender woman to win an NCAA title in the women’s division, having won the 500-yard freestyle at the same meet.
The tie itself was uneventful in swimming terms. What happened next was not. Thomas was handed the fifth-place trophy at the awards ceremony, while Gaines received a sixth-place trophy. She was told the other fifth-place trophy would be mailed to her later. The moment, and the perceived slight, stuck with her.
In the immediate aftermath, Gaines was measured in her public comments. In an interview with The Daily Wire right after the race, she repeatedly emphasized that she is in no way trying to bash Thomas, noting that Thomas is really “not the problem.”
“I am in full support of her [Lia Thomas] 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.”
But that position shifted quickly and dramatically in the weeks and months that followed.
The Pivot to Activism
Within months of graduating, Gaines became one of the most prominent voices in the movement to ban transgender women from competing in women’s sports. She began making regular appearances on conservative media, particularly Fox News and the OutKick platform. She launched the “Gaines for Girls” podcast, started traveling the country giving speeches on college campuses and at conservative events, and began working with organizations like the Independent Women’s Forum and the Leadership Institute.
Gaines spoke at the 2022 CPAC, Conservative Political Action Conference where she was introduced by Donald Trump. She also made appearances on shows hosted by Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn and Tucker Carlson. What started as messaging against trans women playing in women’s sports eventually became a general anti-trans message
Her campus appearances sometimes drew intense backlash. During a speaking event at San Francisco State University in April 2023, Gaines said she was physically confronted and held against her will by protesters. Campus police investigated but no charges were filed.
After she referred to trans women in women’s sports as “spiritual lawfare,” Gaines finished speaking. That’s when protesters arrived and law enforcement ushered her to shelter in a classroom She stayed in the room for 3 hours because protesters were outside, but no one held her against her will or threatened violence if she emerged.
In June 2023, Gaines testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee about her experience competing against Thomas. She accompanied Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt as he signed an executive order addressing transgender participation in women’s sports. She also worked with FIDE, the international chess governing body, on policies regarding transgender women in women’s chess competition.
In August 2024, she launched the Riley Gaines Center at the Leadership Institute in Arlington, Virginia. By that point, her influence on policy was measurable: 27 states had passed laws restricting transgender students from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity, and both West Virginia and Georgia named their versions “The Riley Gaines Act.”
Books, Media Deals, and Political Influence
In May 2025, Gaines published her book Swimming Against the Current, which became a USA Today national bestseller. In it, she laid out her arguments against transgender inclusion in women’s sports and described how her life changed after the 2022 NCAA Championships. She had previously released a children’s book through Brave Books, a conservative children’s publisher.
In December 2025, OutKick announced a new multi-year deal with Gaines as part of Fox News Media’s expansion, relaunching her podcast as “The Riley Gaines Show.”
She had become a fixture in conservative media — endorsed by figures like Jordan Peterson and Tulsi Gabbard, and featured on a federal HHS webpage promoting an executive order that conditioned federal funding on compliance with policies restricting transgender girls from girls’ sports programs.
On a personal level, Gaines married Louis Barker, a fellow Kentucky swimmer originally from England, in May 2022. Their daughter Margot was born in September 2025.
A Polarizing Figure
Gaines’ supporters view her as a courageous defender of women’s sports and fair competition. Her critics see her differently. LGBTQ advocacy organizations like GLAAD have documented instances of Gaines publicly targeting individual transgender athletes —including minors — on social media, drawing harassment toward them.
In June 2025, Olympic gymnast Simone Biles called Gaines out publicly on social media over her treatment of transgender athletes. Journalists and commentators have described Gaines’ broader activism as extending well beyond sports fairness into opposition to transgender rights more generally.
In 2025, Gaines also filed a lawsuit against the NCAA alleging Title IX violations. That case remains ongoing.What’s not in dispute is that Riley Gaines has gone from a talented but relatively unknown college swimmer to one of the most influential activist voices in the country in just three years.
Pablo Torre Finds Out found out about Riley Gaines
Who’s funneling money into the radicalization of Riley Gaines? And what’s the dark past she keeps swimming around, while she’s busy trolling Simone Biles? In partnership with Pablo Torre Finds Out, Madison Pauly from The Center for Investigative Reporting spent six months down the rabbit hole of a grift that keeps on giving… and might wash up at the Supreme Court.
Whether you see her as a champion of women’s rights or a figure who has caused real harm to transgender people, her rapid rise to national prominence is a case study in how a single moment in sports can launch an entirely different career — and reshape a national conversation.
Main photo of Riley Gaines by Gage Skidmore under a CC BY 2.0 license.
