Riley Gaines Barker spoke at a forum in Coffman Union, hosted by Students for a Conservative Voice, on November 27. She discussed an unfair challenge she encountered at the 2022 NCAA Women’s Swimming Championship, where she found herself tied to one-hundredth of a second with transgender swimmer Lia Thomas. Despite the tie, Riley questioned why Lia was awarded the trophy, expressing concerns about the lack of support for women in sports.

This experience ignited Riley’s advocacy for fairness in sports, extending beyond swimming to defend opportunities for young women. Her story goes beyond the pool; it’s a commitment to safeguarding chances for aspiring female athletes. Riley’s fervent opposition to allowing biological men to compete in women’s sports resonates with those who aim to preserve the integrity of female athletics.

During the event, Riley shared her inspiring journey and provided insights into the challenges faced by female athletes today. In the subsequent Q&A session, she addressed the potential need to boycott the NCAA in specific situations and provided her perspective on the current status of the NCAA. The ensuing questions and her responses are outlined below.

Question:

My question for you about boycotting, which I think is a really interesting idea, is as follows. Do you think it would be only effective to boycott for the teams that are experiencing someone coming into their space, like the jiu jitsu or swimming programs? Or should any women’s team right now consider boycotting because of this issue?

Answer:

I think if there was a way to coordinate a nationwide large scale walkout saying, enough is enough, that would be so powerful.

Recently we saw in Virginia the entire school did a walkout, because they allowed men into women’s bathrooms. This untimely led to a young girl being raped in the bathroom by a male who identified as a women. 

Therefore, I think it would be very impactful if we could coordinate some sort of large scale event like that. I do not know what it would look like. I do not know how you would get that done, but if we could I am all for it. I think it would be very powerful.

Question:

What is the current status of the IOC with respect to this issue, or even some women’s professional sports?

Answer:

The IOC (International Olympic Committee) policy is atrocious. Last olympics they had three trans athletes competing, all in the women’s category. 

So here is the policy by the IOC. It says under principle five, there can be no presumption of advantages that males possess over females. No athlete will be precluded from competing or excluded from competition on the exclusive grounds of unverified, alleged, perceived unfair competitive advantage on their transgender status. Until evidence determines otherwise, athletes should not be deemed to have an unfair or disproportionate competitive advantage due to their transgender status.

 So, they are saying that men and women are just simply not different at all, and that we are the exact same. That is what the Olympics are saying, but that is their framework in place. Therefore, that is what they think each sports governing body should look at. Meaning the IOC is cowards. They do not want to be responsible, they do not want to do a blanket policy as it leaves them open for scrutiny and they do not want that which I think is telling. 

After all of this, I worked with the International Governing Body of Swimming to create policies. Their policies aren’t perfect, but it says if you have gone through male puberty, you can not compete with women. They became the first group to take a bold first step in prioritizing fairness.