0.01-Seconds That Changed Women's Sports (and Her Life) Forever with Riley Gaines

Frank Turek (0:03)

Ladies and gentlemen, would you ever have dreamt 20 years ago that today it would be controversial to have biological men competing against women in sports? I mean, 20 years ago, was anybody even thinking that? How did we get to that point from 20 years ago to today where it's controversial for some people to say LeBron James should not be playing in the WNBA or Michael Phelps should not be swimming against women in competition. But now people are saying, well, if she just changes her name to Michelle or he changes his name to Michelle, he could compete. What do we say about this? What can we do about it? And how can we convince people to come back to reality? Well, I've got a very special guest I've been wanting to have on this program for a very long time. She's coming to us from some hotel in Texas right now because she's always on the road talking about this issue with a lot of clarity because she was actually affected by it in a very dramatic way. And her name of course is the great Riley Gaines, ladies and gentlemen.

Here she is, ladies and gentlemen.

Actually, it's now Riley Gaines Barker because she got married and she has a one year old now, a wonderful one year old Riley. It's great having you on the program. How are you?

Riley Gaines (1:28)

Let me tell you, this is an honor, it really is. You have been someone who I have admired and looked up to and looked to for guidance on how to talk about some of these deemed cultural topics. So this is just a really big honor. So thank you for letting me join your show. This is exciting.

Frank Turek (1:47)

Well, just in case there are like five people in our audience that don't know your story, let's go back to 2022 University of Kentucky. You have actually made the Olympic trials in swimming. Am I correct about that?

Riley Gaines (2:01)

You know what I did? And I'll tell you, I first qualified for the Olympic trials when I was 15 years old. So I was, you know, this was back in 2016 I was one of the youngest people there, one of the youngest women there. And so to understand the progression of my career, it wasn't just four years in college, of course. Anyone who's competed at a high level knows it's, it's so much of who you are, whether you're, you're proud to say it or not. It was a large part of my identity, who I was as a person, the skill sets that I had, the characteristics that I had, the person that I was, the friends that you have, my husband even for crying out loud. He was a swimmer as well. If it weren't for competing, I wouldn't have met him and we wouldn't have our daughter now. So being able to compete at the highest level is a lifelong journey.

And it's something that has of course shaped who I am. But I did, I qualified for the Olympic trials in 2015, went to trials in 2016

I qualified again in 2020, but then COVID happened and it paralyzed the whole world, the whole world was shut down. So the Olympics was postponed until 2021 I ended up graduating college in 2022

I could have held on and competed again at Olympic trials in 2024, but I was tapping out. I was done, you know? I ended my sport in a very good spot. I feel like a lot of people in a sport like swimming where it really is so grueling. There's so much time, there's so much personal sacrifice.

I mean, just for a little context, I mean, we swam six hours every single day with three of those hours being before 8 a.m. So, you know, it's less than enjoyable at 4.45 in the morning to be jumping into a freezing cold pool where you will then hold your breath for the next three hours and stare at the same black line at the bottom of the pool that you have become so familiar with. You don't get to talk to your friends. It's a pretty daunting sport. So a lot of people finish their, especially those who swim in college, they finish their career pretty bitter towards the sport. It's kind of just like the natural progression of it. But I ended in a really good spot. I loved my sport. I felt this immense sense of gratitude. I don't know if that came with age or what, because I think most of my life, it was kind of a love hate. But towards the end, I just felt so grateful to be able to move and compete and to do it well. And so I was tapping out. So that last race at that national championships where unfortunately, which I know we'll get into this, we had to compete against a man, that capped off for me 18 years of swimming and doing it the best that I could.