Riley Gaines Tells Sen. Josh Hawley About Run-In With Former NCAA President Mark Emmert Following Lia Thomas Debacle

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Riley Gaines approached now-former NCAA President Mark Emmert shortly after she and other female swimmers were forced to compete against and share a locker room with transgender athlete Lia Thomas during the 2022 NCAA Championships. To say the brief conversation was condescending would be an understatement.

Gaines welcomed Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) onto the latest episode of the 'Gaines For Girls' podcast to reflect on the recent Senate Judiciary hearing that included Emmert's successor, Charlie Baker.

Prior to both Sen. Hawley and Gaines explaining why they were left unimpressed and underwhelmed by Baker's tip-toeing around the topic of transgender athletes competing in women's sports, Gaines reflected on an eye-opening encounter she had with Emmert shortly after the 2022 NCAA Championships.

"I saw Mark Emmert at this conference where they were announcing NCAA Woman of the Year to which I was nominated for, but Lia Thomas was also nominated for NCAA Woman of the Year."

"Anyways, I see Mark Emmert at this conference and approach him and he says 'thank you for doing what you're doing keep fighting, keep pushing.' The audacity to say that as if he's not the one we're fighting."

Emmert being the man in charge of the NCAA at the time - the same NCAA that took no issue with a biological man changing in a locker room with female swimmers - and pleading for Gaines to keep 'fighting the good fight' while he was the one enabling the absurdities is ludicrous, to put it mildly.

Be sure to check out Gaines For Girls here at OutKick. You can also listen to the show on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

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Mark covers all sports at OutKick while keeping a close eye on the world of professional golf. He graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga before earning his master's degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee. He somehow survived living in Knoxville despite ‘Rocky Top’ being his least favorite song ever written. Before joining OutKick, he wrote for various outlets including SB Nation, The Spun, and BroBible. Mark was also a writer for the Chicago Cubs Double-A affiliate in 2016 when the team won the World Series. He's still waiting for his championship ring to arrive. Follow him on Twitter @itismarkharris.