{"id":15933,"date":"2024-05-01T20:57:01","date_gmt":"2024-05-01T20:57:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crankers.com\/?p=15933"},"modified":"2025-10-12T18:38:01","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T18:38:01","slug":"female-champion-swimmer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rawdogsports.com\/blog\/female-champion-swimmer\/","title":{"rendered":"Female champion swimmer &#8216;left with no trophy&#8217; breaks silence following competition against biological male"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A senior at the University of Kentucky, named Riley Gaines, competed in the women\u2019s 200 freestyle at the NCAA Division I Women\u2019s Championships. At the end of the race, as he touched the wall, Gaines looked up and realized the board said that she had placed fifth, which put her in the top five collegiate female swimmers in the nation. But shortly after, she realized she\u2019d tied with transgender athlete Lia Thomas, a biological man who identifies as a woman.<br \/>\n<strong>WATCH RILEY BREAK HER SILENCE ON VIDEO:<\/strong><br \/>\n<div style=\"width: 1200px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-15933-1\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"https:\/\/trendingviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/riley-video.mp4?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/trendingviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/riley-video.mp4\">https:\/\/trendingviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/riley-video.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div><br \/>\nAt that moment she was overcome by a flood of emotions, Gaines said. Happy for her competitors but bewildered, she went back behind the podium where NCAA officials were distributing the awards.<br \/>\nThe man who was handing out the trophies in an NCAA shirt told her: \u201cHey, I just want to let you know, we only have one fifth-place trophy, so yours will be coming in the mail. We went ahead and gave the fifth-place trophy to Lia, but you can pose on the podium with the sixth-place trophy.\u201d<br \/>\nThat got her thinking, she had placed fifth, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/i-left-there-with-no-trophy-ncaa-female-swimmer-who-tied-for-fifth-with-trans-athlete-says-officials-put-lia-thomas-ahead-of-her\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">but they were asking<\/a> her to give Thomas the moment?<br \/>\nGaines briefly argued with the official, as Thomas and other swimmers looked on. After which she took her place on the podium, holding the sixth place trophy next to the transgender athlete whom she had tied with.<br \/>\nGaines said she told this to the official as she argued with him: \u201cOk that\u2019s fine, she worked hard, just like I worked hard, there\u2019s no question there.\u201d But can I ask why she gets the fifth-place trophy before I do? Especially last night, she just won the national title.\u201d<br \/>\nThe official told her that they gave out the awards in chronological order, perhaps referencing the lanes the athletes swam in.<br \/>\n\u201cI just want you to know that we respect you and admire your swim so much, but we just want Lia to hold the fifth-place trophy,\u201d he responded, according to Gaines.<br \/>\n\u201cI was probably running my mouth a little more than I should. I told the guy, \u2018I don\u2019t think that\u2019s that\u2019s right, and I don\u2019t think that\u2019s fair. There\u2019s no dispute that only one of us can hold the trophy, but I think given the circumstances, you\u2019re just trying to save face a little bit,&#8217;\u201d said Gaines.<br \/>\n\u201cIt was a bit disheartening. It really was. I left the pool with no trophy. Not a big deal, but it was the goal that I had set all year,\u201d she added.<br \/>\nThe University of Kentucky swimmer was not the only one who was upset, she said, her athletic director was pretty upset that she had to leave the pool without her trophy.<br \/>\n\u201cThe more I thought about it, the more it fired me up. It\u2019s almost like the NCAA is trying to save face by giving Lia the fifth-place trophy,\u201d she said.<br \/>\n\u201cWho are we trying to protect here? And who are we trying to fight for here?\u201d she questioned.<br \/>\nPhoto: screencap of video<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A senior at the University of Kentucky, named Riley Gaines, competed in the women\u2019s 200 freestyle at the NCAA Division I Women\u2019s Championships. At the end of the race, as he touched the wall, Gaines looked up and realized the board said that she had placed fifth, which put her in the top five collegiate&hellip;&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16057,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.2 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Female champion swimmer &#039;left with no trophy&#039; breaks silence following competition against biological male - Raw Dog Sports and Gaming Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/rawdogsports.com\/blog\/female-champion-swimmer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Female champion swimmer &#039;left with no trophy&#039; breaks silence following competition against biological male\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A senior at the University of Kentucky, named Riley Gaines, competed in the women\u2019s 200 freestyle at the NCAA Division I Women\u2019s Championships. At the end of the race, as he touched the wall, Gaines looked up and realized the board said that she had placed fifth, which put her in the top five collegiate&hellip;&nbsp;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/rawdogsports.com\/blog\/female-champion-swimmer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Raw Dog Sports and Gaming Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/rawdogsports\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-05-01T20:57:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-12T18:38:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Frank Bojazi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/FrankBojazi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Frank Bojazi\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/rawdogsports.com\\\/blog\\\/female-champion-swimmer\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/rawdogsports.com\\\/blog\\\/female-champion-swimmer\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Frank Bojazi\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/rawdogsports.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/61bbc928a8b66fb0990595853f90ef39\"},\"headline\":\"Female champion swimmer &#8216;left with no trophy&#8217; 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