Riley Gaines on The Stephen A. Smith Show Photo Credit: Stephen A. Smith on YouTube

Stephen A. Smith has made it clear in the past few months that he desires to host a platform, similar to Joe Rogan, that doesn’t shy away from touchy subjects in and around politics. And this was on full display on Wednesday when Riley Gaines, an advocate against transgender athletes in women’s sports, joined the Stephen A. Smith Show to discuss the hot topic.

Gaines, who is a former collegiate swimmer with the Kentucky Wildcats, has since turned to a career as a conservative political activist after tying with Lia Thomas, a transgender swimmer who previously went to the University of Pennsylvania, in the 2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships.

This past weekend, Gaines commented on social media about Champlin Park winning the Minnesota state high school softball championship. Particularly, Gaines took issue with the participation of Marissa Rothenberger, a pitcher on the team who dominated throughout the tournament, who was born male.

This sparked a social media beef with Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles, who accused Gaines of “bullying” transgender athletes instead of advocating to give them a different outlet to perform in high school sports, even if Gaines doesn’t want them playing in women’s sports.

On Wednesday, Smith gave Gaines a platform on The Stephen A. Smith Show to discuss her differences with Biles and again reaffirm her stance on transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.

“This case in Minnesota that you’re referring to, this was a boy who pitched five games straight in Minnesota who pitched five games straight, 35 consecutive innings, only allowed two runs of those 35 innings,” said Gaines. “Of those 35 innings, I think he pitched 21 shutout innings. They won the state championship, it was his team’s only ever even making the state tournament. Of course, they went on to win. He led his team in a way that I would describe as not very valiantly.

“Nonetheless, to be very clear, this boy is following the rules that were in place by local leadership, state leadership. Of course, at the interscholastic level, but it nonetheless violated federal law, that federal law being Title IX. So I was quick to call this out, as I have done for years after experiencing personally the effects of competing against a man. So that is a little backstory here. The issue is still happening. It continues to persist full steam ahead with no signs of slowing down.”

As Gaines further expanded on her stance, Smith interjected, outlining how he “aligns fully” with Gaines on this issue and that transgender athletes should compete against fellow transgender athletes in his eyes.

“Now see, I am liberal when it comes to living and let living,” said Smith. “That is my general stance. But when you are talking about women competing in sports against transgender women, men transitioning to women, I side with you 1,000 percent. I have no problem with your position whatsoever. I am not scared to say it, and I have never been scared to say it. I think that is absolutely the right thing to do.

“Women should be competing against women. Men should be competing against men. And transgenders should be competing against transgenders. I have no problem with it whatsoever. I don’t know why that’s controversial.”

Smith seemed far more open to hearing what Gaines had to say on the matter, or her back-and-forth beef with Biles, than many of his peers in the sports media space. Several high-profile figures in the sports media space, including Nancy Armour and Jemele Hill, have publicly expressed their support for Biles over the disagreement. 

About Reice Shipley

Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.