NEWYou can now listen to Pakinomist articles!
Riley Gaines clapped back at Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, DN.Y., on the latest edition of her OutKick podcast, “Gaines for Girls,” following their latest social media feud.
The two went back and forth in a spat that originated with AOC saying if Gaines had put “all this anger into swimming faster [she] would not have placed fifth” in the 2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships.
Gaines mentioned that she is among the “about 2%” of people who competed in Division I track and field and that “there are only eight women … who make it to the finals and are All-Americans in their event.” The person she bonded with was Lia Thomas, a transgender swimmer who won the national title in the 400-meter freestyle the day before.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON Pakinomist
Riley Gaines and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, DN.Y., sparred on social media on October 27, 2025. (Image/Getty Images)
“If they think fifth place is bad, what on earth are they thinking about 462nd? Because that’s what Will Thomas placed among the men just 12 months prior,” Gaines responded, calling Thomas by the former UPenn swimmer’s birth name.
“This comment is just so cute. It’s basically the same tired idea we’ve heard from the Democratic Party and those who support men stealing our opportunities and our places on the podium over and over and over again, that women shouldn’t be angry when we’re screwed and if we are, then there’s something wrong with us as women, as female athletes continued,” Gaines said. “And also this notion that women lose out to men in sports because we just don’t try hard enough, because we’re lazy, maybe we should have just swum faster, that’s dismissive, that’s condescending, and frankly, that’s sexist… They would only feel comfortable and confident and safe saying that to a woman.”
“For the life of me I cannot understand this line of attack.”
University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas and Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines react after finishing fifth in the 200 freestyle finals at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships on March 18, 2022 at the McAuley Aquatic Center in Atlanta, Georgia. (Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
JK ROWLING SIDES WITH RILEY GAINES AFTER AOC’S ATTACK ON TRANS ATHLETE
Gaines then said the New York congresswoman was “hell bent on being on the wrong side of every 80-20 issue.”
“It doesn’t matter if it’s the border, crime, castration of children, parental rights or the men in women’s sports issues,” Gaines said.
After Gaines challenged the AOC to a debate on “The Ingraham Angle,” the congresswoman “challenged” Gaines to “get a real job.” Gaines said she has one — being the mother of a new daughter.
Riley Gaines has fought for justice in women’s sports. (XX-XY Athletics)
“If AOC had a little girl, she’d probably feel a little differently about a grown man exposing himself to his daughter. But on the other hand, she’s proven herself to be a self-absorbed, misogynistic socialist, so probably not,” Gaines said.
