Former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines criticized women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley’s stance on transgender athletes, saying Staley either proved herself incompetent or a sellout by claiming anyone who identifies as a woman should be allowed to play women’s sports.
Gaines argued Staley’s hesitation and water drinking during the question showed she didn’t believe her own statement.
“In three years at South Carolina, she’s won two championships. I think her record is 109 and three. That’s unprecedented, so clearly she’s great at what she does, and she’s developed many incredible athletes whom I admire, but she’s either proving herself… to be entirely incompetent or a sellout, and personally… I don’t think she believes what she said,” Gaines said.
“If you watch the video, her silence, the hesitation and that drink of water, I think it spoke volumes. I think she knew she had to be politically correct, and I know about as good as anyone that that pressure exists and it’s real.”
Staley said yes, transgender women should be able to play college basketball when asked directly.
“I’m of the opinion of, if you’re a woman, you should play. If you consider yourself a woman, and you want to play sports or vice versa, you should be able to play. That’s my opinion. You want me to go deeper?” Staley said.
Staley was questioned whether she believed “transgender women should be able to participate in women’s college basketball?”
Staley said, “Yes.”
“That’s the question you want to ask, I’ll give you that. Yes, yes. So, now the barnstormer people are going to flood my timeline and be a distraction to me on one of the biggest days of our game, and I’m OK with that. I really am,” she added.
Gaines accused Staley of missing a chance to stand with female athletes and argued men’s and women’s basketball are different due to factors like speed, ball size, and dunking.
Gaines said Staley would likely change her view if her team was defeated by men playing as women.
“The bottom line is she knows perfectly well that men’s basketball is a totally different sport than women’s basketball,” Gaines said.
“That’s obvious by the speed of the game, the size of the ball, the sheer amount of layups in women’s basketball compared to dunks when a player gets a fast break in men’s basketball, the distance of the three-point line, the list goes on.”
“It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for her and she blew it, and truthfully, my guess is she’s okay with it until her team [is] defeated by one or more men playing on the opposite team.”
After Gaines criticized Staley on Fox & Friends, Staley blocked Gaines on social media.