NY Times Welcomes ‘Extreme’ Riley Gaines: ‘Offensiveness Is a Part of Her Brand’
30th August 2025
The New York Times devoted nearly 3,000 words Wednesday to a hostile profile of collegiate swimmer-turned-women’s sports activist Riley Gaines, painting her as rude and ruthless in her vengeance tour against transgender males competing in women’s sports.
Reporter Ruth Graham declared off the top in her headline and subhead: “Riley Gaines Finished 5th. Now She Believes Victory Is in Her Grasp; The former college swimmer has used her race against Lia Thomas, a trans athlete, to propel her career as an influential, and unsparing, activist.”
Graham set the scene of the tension-charged women’s swimming championship meet in 2022, where biological male Thomas and a then-unknown University of Kentucky swimmer named Riley Gaines tied for fifth place in the 200-yard freestyle, though the male swimmer was the one who posed with the fifth place trophy: