Dawn Staley said trans athletes should be allowed to play on women’s basketball teams

Former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines called out Dawn Staley’s stance on transgender athletes in women’s sports after the South Carolina basketball coach said anyone who identifies as a woman should be allowed to play for an all-female team.

The OutKick contributor said Monday on “Fox & Friends,” that Staley, whose undefeated Gamecocks defeated Iowa on Sunday to win the women’s national title, doesn’t really believe what she said.

“In three years at South Carolina, she’s won two championships. I think her record is 109 and three. That’s unprecedented, so clearly she’s great at what she does, and she’s developed many incredible athletes whom I admire, but she’s either proving herself… to be entirely incompetent or a sellout, and personally… I don’t think she believes what she said,” Gaines told Brian Kilmeade.

“If you watch the video, her silence, the hesitation and that drink of water, I think it spoke volumes. I think she knew she had to be politically correct, and I know about as good as anyone that that pressure exists and it’s real.”

OutKick’s Dan Zaksheske asked Staley during a press conference on Saturday if transgender athletes should be allowed to play on a women’s college basketball team.

NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament

CLEVELAND, OH – APRIL 7: Head coach Dawn Staley of the South Carolina Gamecocks is showered with confetti after defeating the Iowa Hawkeyes 87-75 at the 2024 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament championship game between Iowa and South Carolina at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on April 7, 2024 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Thien-An Truong/ISI Photos/Getty Images) (Getty Images)

“I’m of the opinion of, if you’re a woman, you should play. If you consider yourself a woman, and you want to play sports or vice versa, you should be able to play. That’s my opinion. You want me to go deeper?” she said.

When asked whether she thought “transgender women should be able to participate in women’s college basketball,” Staley responded, “Yes.”

“That’s the question you want to ask, I’ll give you that. Yes, yes. So, now the barnstormer people are going to flood my timeline and be a distraction to me on one of the biggest days of our game, and I’m OK with that. I really am,” she added.

Gaines accused Staley of blowing a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity, arguing she didn’t have the “courage” to stand with female athletes.

“The bottom line is she knows perfectly well that men’s basketball is a totally different sport than women’s basketball,” Gaines said.

“That’s obvious by the speed of the game, the size of the ball, the sheer amount of layups in women’s basketball compared to dunks when a player gets a fast break in men’s basketball, the distance of the three-point line, the list goes on.”

“It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for her and she blew it, and truthfully, my guess is she’s okay with it until her team [is] defeated by one or more men playing on the opposite team.”

After Gaines’ “Fox & Friends” interview, the former swimmer said Staley blocked her on X, formerly known as Twitter. “HA,” Gaines posted with a screengrab showing Staley had blocked her profile.