Riley Gaines has countless accolades in her swimming career. At the University of Kentucky, she was named to the All-SEC Freshman team in 2019. She was also on the All-SEC Second Team in 2019 and 2020 and made the All-SEC First Team in 2021 and 2022.
And it wasn’t just athletics. Gaines was also named to the CSCAA Scholar All-America First Team all four years at Kentucky and was the SEC Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2022.
But her latest accomplishment might be her proudest.
Make no mistake. The Daily Signal, which awarded Gaines with this title, meant it as nothing but an honor and a compliment. From their article:
Each week on āProblematic Women,ā we name a Problematic Woman of the Weekāthat is, a woman who furthers conservative values and often faces opposition for doing so.
The Daily Signal
In 2023, many problematic women fought for the unborn, spoke out in support of education freedom, and advocated the privacy and protection of female-only spaces. Although itās hard to pick just one, few female leaders acted with more integrity and reached more Americans with a message of common sense than swimmer Riley Gaines.
For choosing to stand in defense of womenās sports and female-only spaces, Gaines testified that she has been met with ādeath threatsā and verbal and physical assault.
RELATED: Riley Gaines Named āAnti-Wokeā Beer Companyās āReal Women of Americaā Calendar Cover Model
Gaines Under Attack
After being forced to swim against a man (Will Thomas) in the 2022 NCAA Women’s Swimming Championships, Gaines turned her attention to public advocacy, speaking out bravely and publicly to protect women’s sports and women’s private spaces.
For her efforts, she experienced many violent reactions from the left, as she described in her testimony before Congress.
Gaines even had to shelter in a private room, guarded by security, after a speech at San Francisco University back in April, when a violent group of trans activists harassed her and threatened her with physical harm.
None of these attacks silenced Gaines even a little bit. In fact, she becomes even more outspoken the more she gets attacked for her stance that women are women and men do not belong in women’s sports or their locker rooms.
In 2023, she founded The Riley Gaines Center at the Leadership Institute. The center is dedicated to training other women to speak out and not be afraid.
Congratulations To Gaines For Her Courage
Following The Daily Signal naming Gaines as its Problematic Woman of the Year, encouragement poured in from some prominent public figures.
(For those who don’t know, Dr. Swain is the scholar whom Harvard President Claudine Gay plagiarized. Swain has been speaking out vehemently against Gay’s academic fraud.)
The world can use a lot more “problematic” women like Gaines. Congratulations on her latest honor to put upon the mantle. However, she may have to move Keith Olbermann’s ego (which she demolishes time and again on X) to make room for this award.
