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Riley Gaines reacted to Nike's 'So Win' 2025 campaign, which empowered women athletes to defy expectations and break barriers. The campaign debuted during the 2025 Super Bowl LIX and celebrated the rise of women's sports. It emphasized how these athletes, despite being told they can't achieve certain things, are dominating the sporting world in unmatched ways.
The campaign features prominent Nike athletes like Sabrina Ionescu, Jordan Chiles, Caitlin Clark, A'ja Wilson, and Sha'Carri Richardson. The Nike campaign has come in the wake of increasing debate about the fairness of allowing transgender women to compete in women's sports. In 2023, Nike's campaign involved promoting transgender athlete, Dylan Mulvaney, for female clothing.
Reflecting on the recent wave of transgender athletes in female sports, Gaines reacted to the End Wokeness video on X posted in January 2025. The video included elite female athletes in Nike's 'So Win' campaign accompanied by a caption:
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"Nike with an ad about how the real threat to women's sports is sexism."
Riley Gaines, in her comment on the post, criticized Nike's support for transgender athletes, particularly those who are biologically male but compete in women's sports, writing:
"Keep in mind Nike has celebrated men competing in women's sports. Faux 'feminists'"
On February 5, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to ban transgender women from competing in female sports categories at schools and institutions that receive federal funding. The order titled 'Keeping men out of women's sports' directs the government to cut funding from schools that allow transgender athletes to compete in women's sports.
The US president cited the controversy surrounding Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who was disqualified from the 2024 Olympics due to elevated testosterone levels.
The 24-year-old is a former NCAA All-American swimmer from the University of Kentucky who became an advocate for keeping transgender women out of women's sports, following the 2022 controversy, where she was tied for fifth place with transgender swimmer Lia Thomas in an NCAA race. Gaines didn't receive the trophy, but Thomas did.
Riley Gaines reflects on President Donald Trump's executive order on 'Keeping men out of women's sports
The decision to ban transgender athletes from competing in elite women's sports came in response to growing concerns over fairness in female competitions.
The controversy surrounding Khelif began in the Olympic boxing finals when Italian boxer, Angela Carini, withdrew from her match just seconds in, citing injury concerns within 46 seconds of the match. In addition, the transgender issue received international attention when the International Boxing Association Chief Executive, Chris Robert, publicly declined to disclose test results but stated that a chromosome test made Khelif ineligible for the year's tournament.
Reflecting on Donald Trump's order, Riley Gaines reposted a video on her X handle in February posted by Libs of TikTok accompanied by a caption:
"I can't even tell you how much this visual means to me"
In February 2025, Riley Gaines joined other female athletes at an event where President Donald Trump signed the executive order restricting transgender participation in women's sports.
