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Riley Gaines replied to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., in the latest edition of her OutKick podcast, “Gaines for Girls,” following their recent social media feud.
The two men went back and forth in an argument that stemmed from AOC saying whether Gaines put “all that anger into swimming faster.” [she] would not have finished fifth” at the 2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships.
Gaines mentioned that she is in “about 2 percent” of people who have 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 tied with was Lia Thomas, a transgender swimmer who won the national title in the 400-meter freestyle the day before.
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Riley Gaines and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., clashed on social media on Oct. 27, 2025. (IMAGN/Getty Images)
“If they think fifth place is bad, what do they think 462nd place is? Because that’s what Will Thomas placed among men just 12 months ago,” Gaines responded, calling Thomas by the former UPenn swimmer’s birth name.
“This comment is so sarcastic. It’s basically the same tired idea that we’ve heard from the Democratic Party and those who support men who steal our opportunities and our podium spots, over and over again, that women have no right 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 idea that women lose to men in sports because we don’t try hard enough, because we’re lazy, maybe we should have just swum faster, it’s dismissive, condescending and honestly, it’s sexist…They would only feel comfortable and confident and safe saying that to a woman.”
“I absolutely 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 final at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships March 18, 2022, at the McAuley Aquatic Center in Atlanta, Georgia. (Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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Gaines then said the New York congresswoman was “committed to being on the wrong side of every issue 80-20.”
“It doesn’t matter if it’s the border, crime, child castration, parental rights or the issue of men in women’s sports,” 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 has one: being a mother to a new daughter.
Riley Gaines has championed fairness in women’s sports. (XX-XY Athletics)
“If AOC had a little daughter, she would probably feel a little differently about a grown man exposing himself to her daughter. But on the other hand, she has proven herself to be a self-centered, misogynistic socialist, so probably not,” Gaines said.
