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"As if Satanic display at opening ceremony wasn't enough" - Riley Gaines slams Paris Olympics for allowing gender test-failed athletes to compete
Riley Gaines lashed out at the sight of Algerian boxer Imane Khelif hurling punches at the face of her opponent, Brianda Cruz of Mexico, in a boxing match at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Tuesday. Khelif has been in the public eye since she her controversial disqualification before the 2023 World Championships. Gaines' comments came after she had previously spoken up against the 'Last Supper' drag show in the opening ceremony in Paris.
Riley Gaines had faced former transgender swimmer Lia Thomas at the 200-yard NCAA Championships in 2022, where she was tied with the latter for fifth. But she lost her position, and the trophy went to Thomas.
Since then, the former University of Kentucky swimmer has advocated against the inclusion of transgender athletes in women's sports. Riley Gaines was one of the sixteen athletes who petitioned the National Collegiate Athletic Association to bar transgender women to compete with the women early in 2024.
Now, at the Paris Olympics, she was disappointed to see an athlete who failed the gender test compete against women, that too, in combat sports. In the video, Brianda Cruz became the subject of Imane Khelif's furious back-to-back punches. Riley Gaines shared the video on her X handle and wrote:
"As if the Satanic display at the opening ceremony wasnt enough, the Olympics glorifies men punching women in the face with the intent of knocking them unconscious. Imane Khelif is 1 of 2 male boxers fighting women at the Olympics. A woman is going to die."
In another post, she lashed out at the Olympics governing body for promoting violence against women.
"Silence from the Democrats as the Olympics proudly promotes male violence against women..."
Imane Khelif, who competed for Algeria at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, was ruled out from the 2023 World Champioships for medical reasons. It later came to light that she had failed a gender test. However, she was cleared by the IOC to compete in Paris.
Riley Gaines criticised the uncoventional show in the Paris Olympics opening ceremony
On July 26, the Paris Olympics opening ceremony was scheduled along the Seine river, instead of being setup in a stadium. Thousands of people performed, but a drag show, including men dressed as women allegedly portraying a parody of the Last Supper, faced the most criticism.
Riley Gaines took to her X handle and echoed the sentiments of people who thought the act to be 'blasphemous'.
"Men in wigs front & center at the Olympic Games No one ever tell me this group is "oppressed" or "marginalized" again," she wrote in her caption.
Gaines commented that the opening ceremony with the men in dramatic clothes and makeup looked like it came out of the Hunger Games, a series of science fiction dystopian adventure books and films.
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