Did activist and former swimmer Riley Gaines "make it to the Olympics"? No, that's not true: Her name was not on the 2024 U.S. national team roster. It doesn't appear on the official website of the Olympic Games, either.
The claim appeared in an interview aired on Fox News and uploaded to YouTube on April 16, 2025. At the 1:25 mark, Attorney General Pam Bondi said:
Riley Gaines started training for swimming when she was four years old, she made it to the Olympics.
This is what the video looked like on YouTube at the time of writing:
(Source: YouTube screenshot by Lead Stories)
Gaines, who became known (archived here) for opposing the participation of transgender athletes in women's sports, competed for the University of Kentucky. Her professional bio on its athletics website (archived here) did not say she ever qualified to join the U.S. Olympic team.
A search on the website of US Swimming (archived here), which is the organization that selects athletes for international competitions, including the Olympics, didn't show Gaines' name:
(Source: US Swimming screenshot by Lead Stories)
A search for Riley Gaines' name on the Olympics website didn't produce any matches, either, only Olympians with her same first name or "Riley" as a last name:
(Source: Olympics screenshot by Lead Stories)
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Other Lead Stories fact checks concerning Riley Gaines are here.
