Keith Olbermann’s penchant for losing his temper and blurring the line between fact and fiction continues to land him in hot water. Last Thursday, the 64-year-old Olbermann unleashed a tirade against Riley Gaines, an All-American female swimming star, insinuating that she was subpar in her swimming abilities.
The talented 23-year-old athlete, who is not the only woman to have seemingly provoked the ire of the former sports commentator in recent weeks, provided a reality check. She showcased her impressive trophy collection to illustrate just how inaccurate Olbermann’s comments were once more.
Gaines, an advocate for preserving women’s sports and the host of “Gaines for Girls,” drew attention to a tweet from Nebraska State Sen. Megan Hunt (I) on Wednesday. In the tweet, the former Democrat, now leaning leftist, expressed discontent over Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen’s (R) executive order titled “Establishing a Women’s Bill of Rights.”
As previously covered by The Blaze, the order recognized the biological distinctions between males and females. It emphasized that there are valid grounds for differentiating between the genders in sports, prisons or detention facilities, domestic violence shelters, locker rooms, restrooms and other spaces where biology, safety and privacy come into play.
Gaines, who had previously shared an incident where a transgender athlete exposed himself to her during a swim meet, replied to Hunt by suggesting that her preoccupation with an accurate definition of a woman had made her appear foolish.
Seemingly in search of a new cause after the Russia collusion hoax had faded, Olbermann latched onto Gaines’ comments and tweeted to her, “Can you address the reality and move past it? You sucked at swimming. That’s why you lost.”
Even after his tweet was fact-checked, which pointed out, “Riley Gaines was a highly accomplished swimmer, concluding her college ‘Wildcat’ career as one of the most decorated swimmers in the program’s history,” and highlighted some of her other achievements, Olbermann remained undeterred by the established facts and continued his verbal assault on the young athlete.
On Thursday, Olbermann posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, “Happily for nasty, stupid, unsuccessful transphobe @Riley_Gaines_ she has no reputation to ruin.”
🥱 https://t.co/rTyZMNcc34 pic.twitter.com/vGPlXrEJoP
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) August 31, 2023
Gaines initially replied, “Ah, now it makes sense why you were let go by ESPN,” alluding to one of the instances when Olbermann faced termination by a media outlet.
She then proceeded to provide Olbermann with a virtual tour of her collection of trophies, highlighting several of her accomplishments, such as three SEC titles, a national second-place finish, recognition as SEC “Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year” and All-SEC first-team honors.
Displaying yet another emblem of her success as a female athlete, Gaines remarked, “Keith, I’d be really sad if I broke this trying to prove a point to an old man who can’t even seem to keep a job, but I’ve got more of these — so I’m not. Thanks, Keith!”
