Riley Gaines sides with Martina Navratilova in – Sports News
Former swimmer Riley Gaines has as soon as again made her voice heard in the continuing debate surrounding transgender athletes competing in girls’s sports activities.
This time, she’s adopted in the footsteps of tennis legend Martina Navratilova, lending her full help to fencer Stephanie Turner, who lately made headlines for her refusal to compete in opposition to a transgender opponent, Redmond Sullivan, on the Cherry Blossom Open in Maryland.
The 31 year-old Turner determined to forfeit the match by taking a knee in protest, a gesture that has drawn reward from Gaines, who made waves herself as an outspoken critic of the NCAA’s insurance policies after competing in opposition to trans swimmer Lia Thomas.
“Stephanie Turner is a heroine in my eyes,” Gaines said during her look on America’s Newsroom. “Isn’t it amazing how simply this can be explained? The other side likes to say this is complex. It’s not. This is about fairness.”
For Gaines, Turner’s actions characterize a highly effective stand in opposition to what she sees because the NCAA’s continued disregard for girls’s rights in sports activities.
“The NCAA has continued to deceive the American people, and they’ve deceived President Trump in this,” Gaines stated. She then went further, expressing frustration over the NCAA’s policies, which she believes are undermining women’s sports by allowing men to compete in women’s categories.
“The NCAA is repeatedly rewarding the replacement of women in order to champion men and women’s sport, which is exactly why myself and about 19 other plaintiffs are suing the NCAA.”
Turner made the decision to forfeit her match with Sullivan after reviewing the competition pools the night before the event and realizing she would be facing a transgender athlete. According to Turner, she had read about Sullivan in an article from the previous year, which helped her make up her mind.
She recalled the moment vividly, saying: “I knew what I needed to do as a result of USA Fencing had not been listening to girls’s objections concerning [its gender eligibility policy]. I took a knee instantly at that time. Redmond was underneath the impression that I used to be going to start out fencing. So, after I took the knee, I appeared on the ref, and I stated, ‘I’m sorry, I can not do that. I’m a girl, and that is a man. And that is a girls’s event. And I can’t fence this particular person.’”
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Despite the act of protest, Turner was penalized for refusing to compete, receiving a black card — the most severe penalty in the sport — which resulted in her ejection from the tournament. USA Fencing, nevertheless, stated that Turner wasn’t penalized for her stance on transgender inclusion however quite for her refusal to compete.
Turner’s act of protest has stirred important dialogue within the sports activities group and past, with Gaines and Navratilova additionally voicing their help for Turner’s determination.
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