Riley Gaines claps back at AOC over transgender swimming feud on podcast

Riley Gaines clapped back at Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., in the latest edition of her OutKick podcast, “Gaines for Girls,” after their recent social media feud.

The two went back and forth in a spat that stemmed from AOC saying if Gaines had put “all this anger into swimming faster [she] wouldn’t have come in fifth place” in the 2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships.

Gaines mentioned that she is in the “roughly 2%” of people who competed in Division I athletics and that “there are only eight women … who make the final and are All-Americans in their event.” The person she tied with was Lia Thomas, a transgender swimmer who won the national title in the 400-meter freestyle the day prior.

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Riley Gaines and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., sparred on social media on Oct. 27, 2025. (IMAGN/Getty Images)

“If they think fifth place is bad, what in the world do they think about 462nd? Because that’s what Will Thomas placed amongst the men just 12 months prior,” Gaines responded, calling Thomas by the former UPenn swimmer’s birth name.

“This comment is just so snide. It’s basically that same tired idea we’ve heard from the Democratic Party and those who support men stealing our opportunities and our spots on the podium over and over and over again, that women aren’t allowed to be angry when we’re screwed over, and if we are, then there’s something wrong with us as women, as female athletes,” Gaines continued. “And also, this notion that women lose against men in sports because we just don’t try enough, because we’re lazy, maybe we should have just swam faster, it’s dismissive, it’s condescending, and honestly, it’s sexist…. They would only feel comfortable and confident and secure in 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 tied for 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 OVER TRANS ATHLETE ISSUE

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, castrating kids, parental rights, or the men in women’s sports issue,” Gaines said.

After Gaines challenged AOC to a debate on “The Ingraham Angle,” the congresswoman then “challenged” Gaines to “get a real job.” Gaines said she does have one — being a mother to a new daughter.

Riley Gaines has championed fairness in women’s sports. (XX-XY Athletics)

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“If AOC had a little girl, she would probably feel a little differently about a grown man exposing himself to her daughter. But on the other hand, she’s proven herself to be a self-absorbed, misogynistic socialist, so probably not,” said Gaines.

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