Riley Gaines Responds To Former UK Swim Coach Rape Allegations

Gaines: "The general consensus is that we are disgusted, heartbroken, and ashamed to be affiliated with a program where anything like this could be alleged to have happened."

Lexington, KY (WTVQ) — About two weeks ago, two former University of Kentucky swimmers filed a lawsuit against former head swim coach Lars Jorgensen, as well as another former coach, Athletic Director Mitch Barnhardt, and the University. The lawsuit against Jorgensen for grooming, coercing, and alleged raping while on the UK swim team, but for the other former coach Gary Conelly, Barnhardt, and the school itself, for allegedly looking the other way when these students reported the rape allegations to school authorities.

Jorgensen, via his attorneys, says all of the rape accusations are happening because he defended his former swimmer Riley Gaines, who swam against transgender swimmer Lia Thomas in March 2022. Now, Gaines is speaking out.

In front of a Congressional hearing in 2023, Riley Gaines said, “I recently graduated from the University of Kentucky where I was a member of the UK swim and dive team. I proudly finished my career a 12 time NCAA All American, the NCAA 200 meter butterfly record holder.” Many many not know all of her athletic accomplishments while on UK’s swim team, but many know the controversial figure she swam against.

Gaines says:

“On March 17, 2022, my teammates and I, as well as female swimmers from universities from around the country were forced to compete against biological male Lia Thomas.” Gaines was a senior under Jorgensen when she swam against Thomas. She says, “We raced, and ultimately we tied. We went the exact same time down to the hundredth of a second. And so we go behind the awards podium and the NCAA awards official looks at both Thomas and myself, ‘Great job, you guys tied. We don’t really account for ties, so we’re going to give the trophy to Lia.’ And so I was of course taken aback by this. ‘Lia has to hold the trophy for photo purposes. You can pose with the 6th place trophy, but you’ll have to give it back. You will go home empty handed. Lia takes the trophy home.’ And that is when I realized I had had enough!”

It was a race that launched Gaines into the national controversial spotlight on biological women and transgender women athletes. Gaines says, “Truthfully up until this point, I was waiting for a coach to say something, a parent, another swimmer, someone within the NCAA, someone with political power. Someone else who was supposed to stand up for us.”

But Jorgensen’s attorney says he did speak up for Gaines and defended his swimmer saying, “Her head coach at the time, Lars, came out and said, ‘I support my swimmer, I support Riley Gaines, she was my swimmer, and I think this was fundamentally unfair. That’s all he said. He didn’t say anything anti-trans. He didn’t say anything anti-NCAA directly. He didn’t say anything anti-Kentucky. He just said, ‘I think this is unfair.’ And it is. It was.”

Over the weekend, Gaines writing on ‘X’:

I took the weekend to spend time with current & former University of Kentucky teammates… The general consensus is that we are disgusted, heartbroken, and ashamed to be affiliated with a program where anything like this could be alleged to have happened.

Lars was someone I trusted, loved, & respected. I would have gone to bat for him & defended him until the end. I feel entirely blind sighted & betrayed. To be extra clear here, I never saw or heard any of these claims taking place, but it isn’t difficult to say I vehemently condemn all violence, especially sexual violence against women.

While I spend most of my time speaking to the harm and severity of allowing men into women’s sports, we can’t neglect or condone other issues that are far too common in female athletics like sexual abuse from authority figures. It’s my mission to defend women (really, humanity) and this falls in line.

Time to process and digest is necessary for healing to occur. Regardless of the allegations, my stance is clear. Sexual predators should not be able to obtain or maintain a position of authority over anyone, much less a team of vulnerable, half-naked young women.

Last June, the University of Kentucky and Jorgensen signed a settlement contract that allowed him to resign with a $75,000 severance and no admission of wrong doing. Under the terms of Jorgensen’s employment contract, UK had the rights to terminate Jorgensen for ’cause’ with no payout, including causing harm to students, or risking the school’s reputation.