Riley Gaines raises series of questions as Donald Trump freezes the federal funding for Penn State University

Swimmer-turned-social activist Riley Gaines recently reacted to the US administration putting a hold on the funding for Penn State University. The government led by President Donald Trump has withheld funding worth $175 million over the inclusion of transgender athletes in women's sports.

Outkick recently posted a video of Gaines on their official X account, where the 24-year-old former NCAA swimmer asked several questions about the funding Penn State University received. The video was captioned as,

"Three years to the day, @Riley_Gaines_ raced against a man at the NCAA Women’s swimming and diving national championship.Today, the Trump administration is holding $175 million in federal funding from UPenn over its inclusion of trans athletes in women’s sports."

In the video posted on Outkick's X account, Gaines asked the following,

"How in the world can you be an accredited educational establishment if you can't tell the difference between men and women?" (1:02 onwards)

"Why in the world is a private institution receiving that much federal funds anyway [above 1 billion approximately]?" (1:28 onwards)

"Why should my taxpayers' dollars be taken from me, under force of threat, to pay for anyone, or anything at that university, again a private university?"

Riley Gaines was outpaced by trans athlete Lia Thomas [who represented Penn State University] in the 200-yard freestyle race at the NCAA Swimming Championships 2022. Since then, Gaines has embarked on a long campaign to exclude transgender athletes from women's sports.

---

Riley Gaines reacts to the updated NCAA policy for female athletes

Riley Gaines reacts to NCAA's new policy on female athletes [Image Source : Getty]

Apart from her campaign against the participation of trans athletes in women's sports, Riley Gaines has also been vocal against the alleged bias shown by the NCAA towards transgender athletes.

After Donald Trump assumed power as the 47th President of the USA, the NCAA announced a change in their policies towards female athletes. However, supporters of President Trump called out the updated policy, pointing out the loopholes that transgender athletes could take advantage of.

In her conversation with Fox News, Gaines remarked,

"It provides loopholes for both states and schools because it does not define sex, which we have seen now is a problem, unfortunately. I mean, it’s wild we have to define s*x-based terms like male and female, but we’ve seen what happens when we don’t. We see unelected bureaucrats go through the back door and reinterpret these words to mean what they want them to mean."

Riley Gaines had previously called out the likes of Cynthia Nixon and Whoopi Goldberg for defending the participation of trans athletes in women's sports. She also campaigned against the participation of athletes like Imane Khelif at the Paris Olympics.