Riley Gaines

Riley Gaines is a 12-time All American collegiate swimmer and the host of the Gaines for Girls podcast on OutKick where she has become a leading voice in protecting women sports through her activism, fearlessness, and authenticity.
 

Gaines’ entire life was changed when she was forced to share a locker room and compete against Lia (formerly Will) Thomas at the 2022 NCAA Women’s DI Swimming Championship at The University of Pennsylvania. Since that race, Gaines has used to her platform to create awareness of the transgender movement in sport and has made historic change at the local and national level.
 

As a result of her activism, President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled, "Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports," 27 states have implemented laws that ban transgender students from participating in women sports, the University of Pennsylvania reached a settlement with the Education Department that saw Lia Thomas stripped of her records, and West Virginia and Georgia passed legislation named "The Riley Gaines Act."
 

Gaines is also a Turning Point USA Contributor where she travels the country speaking at college campuses to continue the fight against transgender women in sports. Previously, Gaines was the director of the Riley Gaines Center at the Leadership Institute and an Ambassador for the Independent Women’s Forum.
 

She published her first book, Swimming Against the Current: Fighting for Common Sense in a World That’s Lost its Mind.
 

Gaines graduated from the University of Kentucky in 2022 with a degree in health sciences and aspirations to be a dentist. She’s a Nashville native where she lives with her husband and baby daughter who was born in 2025.