Riley Gaines: I Stood up for All Women after Losing to a Man | Stories of Us

Intro this NCAA official looks at both Thomas and myself and he says great job you two but you tied so we're going to give the trophy to Leah and I said why are you adamant on giving this trophy to a man in the women's 200 freestyle my name is Riley gains and this is my [Music] story I grew up in Nashville Tennessee Childhood born and raised I come from a pretty large family I have lots of siblings myself all my siblings we played Sports growing up softball basketball soccer gymnastics swimming I started swimming when I was 4 years old swimming it's a LoveHate relationship I loved competing I loved meets and and going best times and and really the pressure of competing I loved it of course the practices it's grueling your diet your sleep schedule not to mention the physical rehabilitation and the social sacrifices that you have to make it's a lifelong journey and it's impossible to put into words the amount of time and dedication that takes to compete and be successful at the highest level once the college recruiting process started ended up committing to the University of Kentucky I had a goal of winning a national title which would have meant becoming the fastest female in the country in my respective event about Midway through my senior season I'm ranked third in the nation the girl who was in second I knew her very well but the person who was leading the country by Body links which is a very large margin in swimming I had never heard of before and this is the first time I became aware of a swimmer named Leah Thomas you know who is this person we had no idea that Leah Thomas is formerly will Thomas and swam three years on the men's team at University of Pennsylvania before deciding to switch to the women's team I then went to look up who will Thomas was this was a mediocre man at best rking 462 in the nation the year prior when competing against the men D NCAA announced that Thomas's participation in the women's category was a non-negotiable we were forced to go to training to learn when referring to Leah Thomas we had to use she her pronouns fully treat this person as a woman and anything else would be discriminatory and bigoted you'll never get a job they told us you know you'll never get into grad school if you speak out this will follow you for the rest of your life you'll be labeled a transphobe if you speak to Media that's what they told us repeatedly NCAA and so that first day of competition was the 500 freestyle which just not an event that I do and so I sat on the side of the pool and watched as Thomas swam against seven of the greatest freestylers and I watched as he demolished them beating them by Body links Olympians American record holders the second day of competition was the 200 freestyle which is the event that Thomas and I raced in we Dove off the blocks we swam all eight laps we touched the wall at the end and I look up at the scoreboard and I realize we had tied down to the 100th of a second which is pretty rare when you're Racing for a minute and 40 seconds and not even one/ 100th separated us and so we get out of the water we go behind the awards Podium typically you know they hand out the trophies you're marched out you're named an All-American this NCAA official looks at both Thomas and myself and he says great job you two but you tied and we only have one trophy so we're going to give the trophy to Leah sorry Riley and I was so taken aback by this I asked the NCAA official why are you adamant on giving this trophy to a man in the women's 200 freestyle you know I know we tied I know we don't necessarily account for ties but what's the thought process here and he didn't know what to say well uh well we're just doing this in chronological order is what he told me I said okay well do you mean alphabetical order because G comes before t his face it changed he told me Riley we've been advised that when photos are being taken it's crucial that Leah is holding the trophy but I could tell he didn't even believe what he had just told me it was feelings of betrayal it was feelings of belittlement I can't even put into words the amount of frustration confusion heartbreak that I felt and not just me my teammates Thomas said nothing to anyone the entire meet and so I got to personally witness and really feel the effect that this infringement this Injustice had on myself and again my teammates and my competitors I had 18 years of hard work and sacrifice and dedication stripped from [Music] me up until then truthfully I was Taking a Stand cowering I was waiting for someone else to take a stand because I thought someone would I thought surely a coach would surely someone from the NCAA someone with political power would come down there and yank this man out of our locker rooms someone who was supposed to be protecting us would protect us but I realized that was naive to think and I remember standing on the podium sharing this spot with a male and it hit me we were smiling and we were applauding yet what were we applauding and cheering on our own eraser our own demolition that's what we were clapping for we're denying objective truth here and that should be a really chilling thought I felt an internal sense of responsibility it compelled me to take a stand there was a lot of support at first but a lot of it was private and at first I felt humbled by this I felt pretty honored you know but as the private messages continued I began to feel frustrated why aren't aren't people willing to put their name to it speaking to the push back it really is some of the most hateful things I've ever been told I've ever had wished upon me and they do it in the name of inclusion and tolerance and acceptance and welcoming and all of those different virtuous words they love to use but it's it's none of those things I saw the tears from the girls who placed 9th and 17th and missed out on being named an All-American by one place and I felt the extreme discomfort in the locker room when you turn around and there's a 6'4 22-year-old man fully exposing male genitalia inches away from where you were simultaneously undressing if you think about why we Conclusion ever even created the women's sporting category it was to give women a chance to showcase our own uniqueness it's not because we're inferior to Men We are capable of accomplishing incredible things but we're different from men if you think about lung capacity of course height limb size heart size throat size men have on average a 40% larger throat than women which matters in a sport like swimming or like running or anything where you're gasping for air the benefit of sports is undeniable how you learn leadership how you learn to grow in terms of your confidence and your security the resiliency the grit the determination I'm the biggest advocate for playing sports for everyone it's just a matter of playing where it's fair and where is safe and to ignore male Advantage is regressive and it's utterly misogynistic when I started speaking out I was terrified I was so nervous that all the things they told me would happen would happen I would never get a job I would never get into grad school I would lose my friends and my family and my scholarship and my playing time none of those things happened and know that courage begs courage one person speaking out will lead to three more speaking out and those three to bigger and bigger it's like a wildfire and there's strength and numbers that's how this would end a lot quicker is if people of prominence especially female athletes with platforms and influence if they could take a stand this would be over we have to stand together and say enough is enough be that for your daughters because they need you [Music] thanks for watching this video and listening to my story to keep pru videos free consider making a tax deductible donation