Riley Gaines Has No Shame, Decency, Honesty, or Self-Respect

Gaines recently claimed Title IX “means nothing” in response to a Division III trans woman athlete whose times are far behind Gaines’ high school bests.

Riley Gaines, from her website

Opinion, by Evan Urquhart

This is a story about a grifter and whose abuse of basic decency, honesty, and fairness in the realm of women’s sports knows no bounds. No, we’re not talking about Meghan Cortez-Fields, a young trans woman college swimmer who recently broke a local college record in the 200-meter individual medley, but of Riley Gaines, who accused her fellow swimmer of “pushing us [cis women] off our own podium.” Gaines comments were picked up by the New York Post as well as other right wing news outlets.

Gaines never competed against Cortez-Fields, in part because she’s no longer in college, but even more so because when she competed for University of Kentucky she did so at the elite level, in Division I, while Cortez-Fields’ Ramapo College of New Jersey is a couple of rungs down, in Division III. Far from being pushed off any podium by Cortez-Fields, Gaines competed for podiums well above the level at which the swimmer she’s currently attacking now competes, as she well knows.

As a Division I college athlete between 2019 and 2022, Gaines specialized in freestyle and butterfly events. That’s when she first became famous, after tying Lia Thomas for fifth place in the 200-yard freestyle in 2022. However, as a high schooler, Gaines also competed in Cortez-Fields’ event, the 200 yard IM. Gaines’ personal best, as a high schooler, was 2:02:65, in 2018. That’s more than five seconds faster than Cortez-Fields’ record setting time of 2:08:20.

Gaines history of swimming the 200-yard IM is available on swimcloud.com, which allowed us to trace her history with this event. The first time Gaines is recorded as having swam the 200-yard IM in less than 2:08:20 was in January of 2015.

Gaines, who was born in April, 2000, would have been 14-years old.

screenshot from swimcloud.com

Athletic competition is about striving for a personal best. Having a range of divisions with different levels of skill gives a much wider range of athletes the opportunity to push themselves, and the achievements of athletes like Meghan Cortes-Fields are no less a product of hard work and determination as those of elite swimmers like Gaines. However, for Gaines to pick on a Division III athlete whose best time is far below Gaines’ old high school best is an unconscionable act of bullying towards an athlete who Gaines knows as well as anyone is not in competition to be one of the elite in women’s sports.