'She blew it': Ex-NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines criticizes coach Dawn Staley for backing trans athletes in women's sports on 'Fox & Friends'

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines appeared alongside co-host Brian Kilmeade to slam South Carolina basketball coach Dawn Staley's stance on transgender athletes in women's sports on the Monday, April 8 episode of 'Fox & Friends.'

Stanley's team Gamecocks won the women's national title on Sunday, April 7, by defeating Iowa. The day before the game, she stated that anyone who identifies as a woman should be allowed to play for an all-female team.

Dawn Staley's take on trans athletes in women's sports

During a pre-match press conference on Saturday, Staley was asked about her opinion on trans athletes playing in the women's college basketball team.

"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 asked the questioning reporter.

When asked again if she thought "transgender women should be able to participate in women's college basketball," Staley responded affirmatively.

"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.

Riley Gaines' take on Dawn Staley

Acknowledging Stanley to be an expert professional in her field, Gaines felt that the coach lacked the "courage" to support female athletes.

"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," Gaines told Kilmeade. "But she's either proving herself… to be entirely incompetent or a sellout, and personally… I don't think she believes what she said."

"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."

Gaines was confident that Staley knew the difference between men's and women's basketball games, stating, "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," she added.