Riley Gaines Unimpressed With NCAA President Charlie Baker's Senate Testimony; 10-Month Old Letter Still Unanswered

NCAA president Charlie Baker tip-toed around the topic of transgender athletes and the future of biological men competing in women's sports during Tuesday's U.S. Senate Judiciary hearing. Riley Gaines, who knows first-hand what it's like to compete against and share a locker room with a biological man, wasn't impressed by Baker's testimony.

Unfortunately, that's par for the course when it comes to the NCAA's stance on biological men competing against women, and Gaines is used to non-answers and silence on the topic.

Riley Gaines speaks during a discussion on transgender athletes In women's sports during a National Girls and Women in Sports day event on Capitol Hill. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Gaines penned a letter to Baker shortly after he was appointed president of the NCAA before leaving his post as Governor of Massachusetts. The letter details the ridiculousness of transgender athlete Lia Thomas competing against female swimmers in the 2022 NCAA Championships.

Gaines' letter is dated Jan. 5, 2023, and she has yet to receive a reply of any sort.

Baker, who became NCAA president in March 2023, was one of seven witnesses to testify during Tuesday's Senate hearing that was centered around Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) and the future of college athletics. While NIL discussions were the focus, Senators Josh Hawley (R - Missouri), Marsha Blackburn (R - Tenn.), and Mike Lee (R - Utah) all tried to get something, anything, out of Baker when it comes to trans athletes in women's sports.

Sen. Hawley specifically recalled Gaines' previous testimony where she explained that she and other female swimmers had to not only compete against Thomas during the national championships but also share a locker room with Thomas despite never giving consent.

Baker took this as an opportunity to throw his predecessor Mark Emmert under the bus before giving an overly generalized statement of "I don’t believe that policy would be the policy that we would use today" when asked about female athletes having to share locker rooms with biological men.

Gaines, who hosts the OutKick podcast Gaines For Girls, shared her reaction and thoughts to Baker's testimony:

"I was excited to hear of Charlie Baker’s acceptance of the NCAA position because Mr. Baker has a reputation for fairness and for considering all viewpoints. He was an accomplished student-athlete at Harvard. He has a daughter who is about my age who played sports growing up. Because of all this, I imagined that he would be adamant about prioritizing fairness and the integrity of sports rather than creating guidelines that limit opportunities for females under the guise of promoting “inclusion.”

"And let me be clear, the guidelines he mentioned in this week's Senate Judiciary hearing are no less harmful to women, no less discriminatory to women than those in 2022. Without single sex competition, there can be no equal athletic opportunity."

Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas of Penn and Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines react after finishing tied for 5th in the 200 Freestyle finals at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships in Atlanta. (Photo by Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

"RE: His point about not being the president in 2022: To be certain Mr. Baker understood the severity of what the female Division 1 swimmers dealt with at our NCAA Championships, I wrote a letter to him in January 2023 before he assumed his new NCAA role. I explained the general consensus of how the female athletes felt disregarded and betrayed by the unfair competition and lack of privacy and vulnerability in our locker rooms where male genitalia was on full display. I explained how athletes, coaches, administrators, and parents were silenced amidst the controversy. I explained why it’s crucial to understand the scientific evidence that shows the impossibility of leveling the collegiate playing field through hormone therapy."

"I asked for an opportunity to meet face-to-face and sit down with him to better explain my (and so many other female athletes’) perspective and to work together to create a solution that would provide everyone a place where they can play fairly and safely."

"TEN months have passed since I sent this letter. Unfortunately, as with former NCAA President Mark Emmert, I’ve yet to receive a reply."

When Baker was asked during Tuesday's hearing by Sen. Lee if he or the NCAA had apologized to Gaines and other female athletes for the debacle that was the 2022 NCAA Championships he said that he did not know.

Gaines has made it clear that the answer to that question is no.