‘Traitor to Women’: Riley Gaines Blasts Female Competitor Who Defended Trans Cyclists

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Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Warner Todd Huston

Former NCAA swimming champion turned advocate for protecting women’s sports Riley Gaines is lashing out at an Illinois woman who placed third in a woman’s cycling competition after the bronze winner defended the two male-born cyclists who bested her and won first and second place in the women’s category.

Gaines flamed the cyclist as a “traitor to women” for sticking up for the two transgender racers who beat her in the Illinois State Cyclocross Championships in the women’s single-speed division at the end of November.

Last week, third-place winner Kristen Chalmers wrote a public letter calling criticism of the male-born winners of the women’s category “ridiculous,” according to NBC News.

“It would be ridiculous to say that my life has been ruined by getting third,” Chalmers said in the letter. “I had a great race, and it would have been more boring if it had been a smaller field without such strong competitors in it.”

Chalmers added that she and the Chicago cycling community are “steadfast in their support” of Johnson and Williamson.”

“We refuse to be falsely presented as victims in a manufactured controversy driven to further alienate and marginalize those most vulnerable within our community, in service of rampant and harmful anti-LGBTQ+ legislation,” Chalmers continued. “We speak for ourselves: inclusion makes our sport and community stronger. Everyone is welcome here. Trans women are women.”

The first and second-place winners, Tessa Johnson and Evelyn Williamson, have won dozens of titles on the Chicago cycling circuit over the last several years.

Their long string of wins has brought an avalanche of criticism down upon the Chicago CrossCup organization that has fully and militantly embraced the two male-born racers and has allowed them to compete as women. Criticism has also been thick against Johnson and Williamson, both of whom have been accused of cheating by pitting their male bodies against female opponents.

Gaines, though, was shocked and disgusted that the third-place winner would so vocally stick up for the trans cyclists who beat her, Fox News reported.

“Why is it so often women applauding their own erasure? Chalmers may claim she’s fine losing to men, but female athletes like her don’t have the right to willingly surrender the integrity of competition for everyone,” Gaines said on the latest episode of her OutKick’s “Gaines for Girls” podcast.

“The majority of female athletes believe women deserve respect and fair competition. She is a traitor to ethical and fair sport. And she’s a traitor to women.”

Gaines was not alone in criticizing the men who won the women’s race.

Tennis great Martina Navratilova also blasted the transgender racers, writing, “More mediocre male bodies taking podium places from female athletes. And it stinks!!!!”

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