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Last year, Riley Gaines was nominated for NCAA Woman of the Year. This year, they almost wouldn’t even let her into the ceremony.
The former Kentucky swimmer had plans to attend the annual convention, which honors the best and brightest women in collegiate athletics. But when she arrived, two NCAA representatives stopped her at the door. She wasn’t “allowed” in.
“I said, ‘Hold on, what do you mean I’m not allowed in there?'” Riley recalled. “I pulled up the email and showed them everything was in place to where I most certainly was allowed in there. And they said, ‘No, we know you have your credentials. But that’s not what we’re talking about. You’re just not allowed in there.'”
Riley said the rep questioned whether she might disrupt the Woman of the Year ceremony by staging some sort of protest or demonstration.
“I’m here to support these girls,” Riley said. “By no means would I want to distract or take anything away from them. That’s the silliest thing I’ve ever heard.”
Finally, she realized the real reason they denied her entry: to clear the way for NCAA President Charlie Baker.
“It was clear to me — and it was clear to all my friends who were there with me — that they had simply pulled me aside when Charlie Baker was walking by,” Riley explained. “So I didn’t have the opportunity to talk to him until he was safely secured in a completely separate room. It was evident.”
Charlie Baker Continues To Duck Riley Gaines
When Baker took over as NCAA president in March 2023, he said changes would be made to the transgender policy to ensure safety and fairness for female collegiate athletes.
But so far, he’s all talk. Except, he won’t talk to Riley at all. She’s tried.
Before Thursday’s ceremony, Riley led a group of current and former NCAA athletes, Olympians, coaches and parents at the We Won’t Back Down Rally in Phoenix. Their goal was to send a message to the NCAA to stop discrimination in women’s sports.
The event was the result of a coalition among several women’s advocacy groups, including the Independent Women’s Forum, ICONS and the Women’s Liberation Front.
Together, they handed NCAA officials a binder containing a demand letter with more than 70,000 signatures. And the demand was simple: Keep women’s sports female.
You can read the full letter here.
Baker was supposed to meet them there to receive the binder himself. But he backed out and sent two representatives instead.
“He was toying with the idea of being present. But basically what he decided was that he would just send representatives,” Riley said. “He didn’t think it was a good look for him to be there.”
OutKick reached out to the NCAA for comment, but we have not received a response.
NCAA Convention Highlights Hypocrisy of NCAA’s Transgender Policy
After all of that to-do, Riley finally did get to attend the ceremony to support 2023 NCAA Woman of the Year Logan Eggleston and the other female nominees.
But the irony of the situation wasn’t lost on her: The NCAA was celebrating women while also “villainizing” Riley Gaines for fighting for the rights of women.
“I can’t help but laugh when the NCAA, during this this award show, kept saying things like, ‘We strive to create opportunities for trailblazing women,'” she said. “It’s so ironic listening to them sit there and say they’re creating opportunities when they deliberately took away opportunities for women and continue to do so.”
Baker is scheduled to testify at a legislative hearing in front of the Innovation, Data and Commerce Subcommittee on Jan 18. But Riley isn’t expecting a sweeping policy change from that appearance — just the same old runaround.
“He knows the position that the NCAA and subsequently that he has taken is wrong. And he basically admitted that back in front of the Senate a few months ago,” Riley said. “But nothing has changed since that National Championship [where Lia Thomas won a swimming national title].
So I think that’s why he’s scared — because he can’t justify his actions or what the NCAA has done.”
Until she gets an audience with Baker and the NCAA Board of Governors, Riley says she’ll continue to “hold the NCAA’s feet to the fire.” And she encourages everyone else to do the same.
“What we’ve seen is that pressure works,” she said. “They’re representing a fringe minority at the expense of women — our safety, our privacy, our fairness, our dignity. And it has never been on the wrong side of history to stand with women.”
Follow Amber on X at @TheAmberHarding or email her at Amber.Harding@OutKick.com.
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January 15, 2024 at 02:51AM
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