The piece in The New York Times focusing on Riley Gaines, a former standout NCAA swimmer, has been sharply criticized as ‘petty and misguided’ by Jennifer Sey, a prominent American business executive.
Sey, known for her accomplishments as a national championship gymnast, who clinched the all-around title in 1986, voiced her strong disapproval of the article to the Daily Mail on Wednesday, remarking, “It’s entirely inaccurate from the very beginning.”
Gaines and Sey have worked closely together for over a year with sports-clothing company XX-XY Athletics.
Sey founded the venture last March, with Gaines serving as one of the brand’s ambassadors.
“The Riley Gaines article in the NYT highlights a significant gap between ordinary Americans who acknowledge biological reality and a media industry persisting in pushing a certain narrative,” Sey shared with the Daily Mail.
Daily Mail has reached out to Times spokespeople for comment.
The NY Times profile of Riley Gaines has been slammed by business executive Jennifer Sey
Sey and Gaines work together with the brand XX-XY Athletics, which was founded in 2024
Lia Thomas and Gaines have been connected since the 2022 NCAA Swimming Championships
She continued, “Even though 80% of Americans support the notion that women’s sports should be exclusively for women, along with all major governing bodies setting rules to uphold this, the traditional media portrays only bigots and unfriendly conservatives who oppose the LGBT community as those advocating for fairness in sports,” Sey elaborated.
Gaines came into the spotlight competing against Lia Thomas, where they both secured a fifth-place tie in the 200-meter freestyle during the NCAA Championships, marking the end of Gaines’ competitive swimming journey.
Thomas later became the first openly transgender woman to win an NCAA title in the 500-meter freestyle later that day.
Since then, Gaines and Thomas have been at the forefront of a heated debate regarding transgender men participating in women’s sports, fueled further by the political climate since Donald Trump began his second term as President in January.
One of Sey’s biggest takedowns of the Times’ story, written by Dallas-based reporter Ruth Graham, is her description of the defining competitive moment between Thomas and Gaines, with all eight swimmers taking part in the championship race looking ‘indistinguishable from one another.’
‘No, they did not look indistinguishable. Will Thomas is (6-foot-4) with the broad shoulders and wing span of a man,’ Sey continued. ‘None of the women look anything like him. But the writer tries to make the case from the outset that Thomas is just another woman!’
‘Thomas is favorably described as “quiet” suggesting a meekness. When in reality, Thomas cheated his way into the NCAA finals in 2022 by declaring that he is a woman. He was ranked 554th in the 200 freestyle in men’s the year prior.
‘In one year, he catapulted up to 5th. No training differences. No coaching change. The only that changed was the category he was competing in. There is no analysis or questioning of this rapid rise.’
Thomas is the NCAA’s first openly transgender woman national champion from the 2022 event
Gaines has been a critic of trans athletes competing in women’s sports over the last few years
‘Any athlete or coach knows that that kind of rise from 554th to 5th in one year in impossible. Any governing body knows. If a person didn’t switch categories, they’d be investigated for doping. It is simply impossible.’
Gaines replied to how she was depicted in the story on Wednesday through social media, also not a fan of the piece.
‘Lots of dishonesty & false depictions in this NYT piece written by @publicroad (as expected) that essentially paints me as Satan himself,’ Gaines said. ‘But normal, sane people understand men can’t be women and vice versa. Keep doubling down, @nytimes, and we’ll keep winning.’
Sey also takes issue with the view that Thomas has ‘largely dropped’ from the public eye in the time since the 2022 NCAA championships, while Gaines has built her personal brand its back.
Graham describes Gaines as someone who has ‘essentially not stopped talking about a race that lasted less than two minutes.’
‘She can’t stop talking about it? That lasted two minutes? Everything about this is designed to make Gaines seem like a petty bitter grifter. When in reality, she had trained her entire life for that moment,’ Sey stated to Daily Mail. ‘Sporting events often (always?) come down to a few minutes or seconds. Why minimize it?’
‘It was the last race of her competitive career. She placed 5th in the entire country. That is an achievement and she deserved to have her moment on the podium.’
Graham called Gaines receiving a fifth-place trophy from her race against Thomas a ‘galling slight.’ The Kentucky alumnus’ finish for 2022 in the discipline was better than thousands of college swimmers across America.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on banning transgender athletes in sports
Gaines’ views have come into conflict with others in the sports world, including Simone Biles
‘It is a galling slight. This is so petty and misguided and frankly, snarky. The NCAA chose a woke photo op over the woman who earned the trophy,’ Sey said. ‘Not to mention the woman who was 6th who got bumped off the podium entirely. And why shouldn’t Riley have that moment she’d trained her entire life for?
The transgender athlete matter had a climax earlier this year with Trump pushing for a ban from the NCAA and even signed an executive order entitled: ‘Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports’.
‘Of course the writer doesn’t share my background as a long time leftie. She is happy to have the whole movement dismissed as a right-wing grift,’ Sey added. ‘Which is a lie, 70% of Californians agree with Trump’s executive order.
‘This is a broad movement with support from people of all political persuasions. The lie that it is not just right wing, but bigoted and grifty is architected to ensure that others don’t join.’
‘But they are joining. Because we can all see that Will Thomas is a man and had unfair male advantage in swimming against women. We see the lies and the deceitful narrative isn’t working any more.’
Gaines and Sey’s views have come into conflict with others in the sports world, including legendary gymnast Simone Biles, who got into a social-media row with the swimmer months back.
