'Treats men better than women"- Riley Gaines slams Nike Super Bowl commercial, cites Allyson Felix's fight with the brand

Riley Gaines slammed Nike for gathering top sporting women for the Super Bowl advertisement, aiming to promote women in sports. She claimed that the brand denied financial safety to Allyson Felix when she was pregnant with her first child. Gaines has been a vocal advocate for women's safety in sports, especially rallying against transgender inclusion.

Gaines received a shoutout from the newly elected US President, Donald Trump, for being a frontrunner in saving women's sports from the participation of biological male athletes. She utilizes her social platforms for activism and even signed a legal case against the NCAA for the same cause in March 2024.

As Nike recently cast stellar athletes like Jordan Chiles, Sha'Carri Richardson and Caitlin Clark in the Super Bowl commercial, Gaines highlighted an irony. The powerful ad was created by the same sportswear brand that once denied endorsement deals to Allyson Felix during pregnancy.

"First impression, I love this commercial. But then I remembered who made the commercial, and their treatment of women, or should I say their mistreatment of women throughout history," Gaines said in the video. "Y'all remember what Nike did to this woman, Allison Felix? A seven-time Olympic champion? She was sponsored by Nike, and when she got pregnant, Nike cut her endorsement deal by 70%, literally telling her to know her place and just run.

"You can see here in her Instagram post where she said she would wake up at 4.30 am, five months pregnant, to train so she could continue hiding it from Nike. So she started her own shoe company, and just two years later she qualified for her fifth Olympic Games with her daughter watching in the stands," she noted.

Riley Gaines also showed a video of internet personality and trans rights activist, Dylan Mulvaney, working out in a Nike fit.

"Nike wants to talk about women's empowerment, then what is this? Because to me this looks like a brand who treats men better than they treat women, under the guise of feminism. But I'm not falling for it...Nike only cares about women when it's cool or profitable."

Riley Gaines penned a heartfelt note to her past self after Donald Trump signed an executive order

Riley Gaines at the Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Holds Rally In Glendale, Arizona - (Source: Getty)

Donald Trump signed the “Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports" order that imposes educational institutions that receive federal funding to abide by his order of considering 'sex' as the one assigned at birth. In his speech, he shouted out to Gaines for her contribution.

Gaines penned an emotional note to her younger self who gave away the fifth podium to trans swimmer, Lia Thomas in 2022.

"I wish I could've told the girl in this photo what was to come in 2025. She felt cheated, betrayed, and violated. I'm just glad that girl trusted God and took a leap of faith by stating the obvious when it wasn't popular. It was true then and it's true now. He's a man."

Riley Gaines had amassed 12 NCAA All-American honors as a swimmer at the University of Kentucky.