Riley Gaines Spins Circles Around Harvard For Apparent Lia Thomas Letter

You gotta love the fight of Riley Gaines.

Former college swimmer Riley Gaines tweeted Tuesday that the Harvard University swimming team was apparently sent a letter about transgender swimmer Lia Thomas competing in their sport.

Now a champion of fairness and equality in women’s sports, Gaines has spoken out against Thomas, the NCAA and other entities that embrace biological males participating in female sports.

The letter that Gaines was made aware of and then posted on her social media reads:

“The conversations and controversy surrounding Lia have been challenging to read. In particular, they focus or (sic) what is fair and what is ethical. Regardless of your personal stance, Lia has been incredibly transparent and is abiding by all NCAA rules. That is a fact. Having watched [Schuyler Bailar]’s transition first hand, I can tell you that if it wasn’t for the support of the teams, he may not be here today.

Life is more important than politics. While we will never tell you what to do or what to believe, it doesn’t benefit out team from winning a championship if we spend our collective energy getting annoyed or frustrated. Let the NCAA figure out their next steps. Let us focus on our team. And if any press reaches out, then please direct them to our Sports Media Office and ideally, refrain from comment.”

That then led to Gaines giving her “translation of the message they’re communicating.”

“Let [me] divert your attention from inherently feeling like something is wrong, by asking you to focus on how great Lia has been. Let me emotionally blackmail you into accepting mistreatment because otherwise you are complicit in a potential death. Exchanging your fair treatment for someone else’s benefit (a male in this case) is a justifiable cause. And the fair treatment of women is ‘just politics’ anyway.

While we won’t tell you what to do, we’re telling you it is a bad choice to fight this. Let the men in charge at the NCAA decide your fate. Immerse your thoughts and feelings into something else to ignore the obvious injustice you face. Let other people decide if you are worthy of fair competition without your input or voice. Oh, and finally don’t talk.”

A swimmer from Harvard shared this message that was sent to their entire team surrounding the Lia Thomas controversy. Here is the translation of the message they’re communicating…

“Let my divert your attention from inherently feeling like something is wrong, by asking you to… pic.twitter.com/9yrN1ekuNN

— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) June 20, 2023

Riley Gaines is such a G, man — just a smooth cat how she handles her business.

None of this is really surprising from Harvard though, if it is indeed true. It sucks too, Harvard has mad swag considering they’re a powerhouse in academics, have a solid athletics program and I love the colors of that school (and that crest of theirs is so dope). But man … why does everybody and everything that’s considered “elite” just have to push the most ridiculous stuff? (RELATED: The Athletic Angry Because Texas Rangers Don’t Have Pride Night, Even Though 29 Of 30 MLB Teams Already Do)

It just makes them look dumb, and makes me lose brain cells in the process.

Let’s do better, Harvard.