Riley Gaines Thanks Donald Trump for Banning Transgender Women from Female Sports

American swimmer Riley Gaines has expressed her gratitude to US President Donald Trump for signing an executive order prohibiting biological men from participating in women's sports.

Gaines, who has become a prominent advocate for protecting female sports after speaking out against transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, stated she felt “cheated, betrayed, and violated” due to a non-biological woman competing against her.

“I wish I could've told the girl in this photo what was to come in 2025,” Gaines shared on X, accompanying a photo of herself with Thomas at the tournament. “She felt cheated, betrayed, and violated. I'm just glad that girl trusted God and took a leap of faith by stating the obvious when it wasn't popular.”

Referring to Thomas, she added, “It was true then and it's true now. He's a man.” Gaines previously commented, “Things could've been so different. Gender insanity was the final straw that brought a lot of moderates to the side of common sense. Specifically, I believe it was the issue of men in women's sports. I've been living in a state of gratitude everyday since Nov 5th. Praise God.”

Gaines was present at the White House with President Trump when the executive order was signed. While swimming for the University of Kentucky, Gaines and her fellow female swimmers had to compete against Thomas, which culminated in a tie for fifth place in a race. However, at the awards ceremony, the trophy was only given to Thomas, leading to a viral photograph of a disgruntled Gaines alongside Thomas.

In recent developments, three former University of Pennsylvania women's swimmers initiated a lawsuit, claiming they experienced emotional trauma from having transgender swimmer Thomas as a teammate, calling for the Ivy League to invalidate Thomas' records.

The lawsuit alleges that UPenn administrators harassed, abused, and violated federal laws by permitting Thomas to compete. “The UPenn administrators told the women that if anyone was struggling with accepting Thomas' participation, they should seek counselling and support from CAPS and the LGBTQ centre,” the lawsuit claims.

The plaintiffs, Kaczorowski and Holmquist (who graduated in 2024), along with Estabrook (a 2022 graduate), asserted they were “repeatedly emotionally traumatised” by Thomas' participation and claimed school officials promoted a pro-transgender ideology during Thomas' tenure on the team.

According to the lawsuit, swimmers were invited to a talk titled 'Trans 101' and were warned against voicing opposition to Thomas, or risk being labelled as transphobes, potentially affecting their future employment opportunities.

Thomas, who was part of the UPenn Men's Swimming and Diving team from 2017 to 2020, joined the women's team in 2019 and broke multiple records in women's swimming, leading to significant controversy.

The lawsuit seeks a judicial declaration that Thomas was ineligible to compete in women’s races and requests the vacating of Thomas' records.