John Oliver Epically Calls Out Awkward Truth Behind Former NCAA Swimmer's Anti-Trans Tirades

On Sunday's episode of Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, the outspoken host devoted the entire program to the attack on trans girls and women who play sports by the GOP.

Oliver began the program saying:

"We're actually gonna start with our main story this week, and it concerns an absolute fixation of the right. Because even as the market crashed in the wake of Trump's tariffs, Fox News spent a lot of time on this."

According to a clip from Fox:

"This is the civil rights issue of the hour, women's sports. Here's the story that everybody's going to be interested in. A female fencer stands up for fairness in women's sports."

But Oliver disagreed, stating:

"Wait, that's the story that everyone is going to be interested in? Are you sure about that? The story about fencing and not the one that's caused the stock ticker in the corner of your screen to go bright red like an inflamed hemorrhoid?"

Later in the program, Oliver shared a clip from the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), stating:

"Basically, it is not the case that any man is going to be stronger or more athletic than every woman, which is sometimes what gets implied here, including by Donald Trump, who brought Riley Gaines, the former college swimmer who's become one of the most prominent voices on this issue, on stage to say this:"

A clip of Trump had the POTUS saying:

"'Just to show you how ridiculous [trans women competing] is, look at me. I'm much bigger and much stronger than her. There's no way she could beat me in swimming. Do we all agree? Thank you'."

Oliver—and everyone with critical thinking skills—wasn't buying Trump's claim of athletic superiority over Gaines.

Oliver quipped:

"I don't agree, but I would like to see it. I would like to see the 78-year-old President try to swim in water against a former [Division] 1 swimmer. I'd like to bear witness to that event and whatever happens after it as a result of it occurring."

Later still, Oliver shared Gaines' rise to fame among the MAGA crowd.

Oliver explained how the MAGA media darling exploited her mediocre collegiate swimming career to call out another female athlete who tied with Gaines in a single race...that neither woman finished in the top three in.

Oliver shared:

"But the most famous example [of a trans female athlete] is probably Lia Thomas. As you probably know, she's a swimmer who initially competed on the University of Pennsylvania men's team, including one year while undergoing hormone therapy as part of her medical transition as per the NCAA's rules at the time."

"She made national headlines after she won the NCAA championship in the women's 500 freestyle. She got a good time in that race, her best of the season. Although it was also a full nine seconds behind the record set by Katie Ledecky."

"It's also the only race she won at that meet. She came in eighth in the 100 freestyle, and, in what's weirdly her most consequential race, she tied for fifth in the 200 free with Riley Gaines, who catapulted to conservative stardom off the back of that race."

"And I will let Riley herself tell you the story of how Lia Thomas and the NCAA wronged her."

Showing a clip of Gaines from ESPN's Outside The Lines, the former swimmer said:

"I look up at the board. Before I even looked at my name, I looked at Thomas' name, and I saw the number five, and I looked beside my name, and there's a five. The NCAA official looks at Thomas and myself and says, 'Great job, but you guys tied, and we only have one trophy, so we're gonna give this trophy to Lia'."

ESPN's Tisha Thompson's voiceover added:

"Thomas held the trophy for fifth place. Gaines held the one for sixth."

Gaines continued her tale of woe.

"They told me when pictures were being taken, Thomas had to have the trophy, which just reduced it down to a photo op. I felt so belittled. I felt so betrayed."

Oliver responded:

"Okay. So a few things there. First, that's a story about how Lia Thomas prevented Riley Gaines from getting fifth place instead of fifth place."

"Second, those trophies look absolutely identical. Third, yes, it was a photo op in the sense that everybody arranged themselves for the purposes of taking a photo."

"And while we're talking about photo ops, I don't know, man, you were on the stage at CPAC so an objectively drownable man could announce that he'd beat you in a race. That's about as photo oppy as it's ever gonna get."

"So, just so we are clear, Lia Thomas didn't take anything from Riley Gaines. In fact, you could argue she gave a lot to her, as Gaines later decided to forgo dental school in order to be an activist and speaker."

"She now has her own advocacy center and has personally lobbied multiple state legislatures for bans, all to address the threat posed to women's sports by a woman who swam exactly as fast as she did to the literal hundredth of a second."

Oliver added later:

"Now, the anti-inclusion camp objects to being called hateful, bigoted, or intolerant usually right before or after saying something most would consider qualifies. Here is Riley Gaines doing just that."

Showing another clip of Gaines, the anti-trans activist said:

"I don't want to be considered a bigot or a transphobe or all of those labels. There's no hate in my heart. But me, myself, personally, I don't actually think this person is a woman."

"I don't actually think this person is a female. Therefore, when I say 'she,' I feel like I'm going against my moral compass'."

Oliver responded:

"Yeah, but it turns out there is a lot of distance between 'I don't want to be considered a transphobe' and 'I don't want to be a transphobe.' Even greater than the distance between you and first place in that race you make such a big deal about."

Earlier in the program, Oliver shared another Trump clip, from a trans sports ban executive order signing ceremony.

Oliver stated:

"...The issue of trans athletes has become very important to conservatives in general and Donald Trump in particular."

"He talked about it at length in his address to Congress and signed an executive order titled 'Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports', which promised to rescind all funds from educational programs that allowed trans women and girls to compete."

"And at the signing ceremony, he ad-libbed the creepiest compliment possible."

Video from the signing had Trump saying:

"'We're defending the rights and safety and pride of the American people, including our great, great, great female athletes. What athletes you are, too'."

"'And, you know, I'm not allowed to say this politically. It could end my career. They're really beautiful people."

"These are beautiful people. But, you know, like everything else, it's a little bit different today'."

"'You're not allowed to say that because if you call a woman or a girl beautiful, that's the end of your career. But let's take a chance on it, [GOP Speaker] Mike [Johnson]. Let's take a chance.'"

But if boasting about grabbing women's genitals or kissing them without consent, walking into dressing rooms to gawk at underage girls when he owned Miss Teen USA, cheating on all three of his wives, and making decidedly creepy comments about his own daughter didn't impact his popularity among his MAGA minions, it's doubtful that using a signing ceremony to creep on girls young enough to be his granddaughter will end Trump's career.

Oliver also pointed out:

"Donald Trump joked about dating his own daughter on 'The View.' He said that on a f**king morning show."

Oliver continued:

"This issue is an obsession for Republicans. Last year, they spent over 116 million dollars just on TV ads featuring trans athletes. And the relentless focus on this over the years has had a meaningful impact, with one poll showing more than six in ten adults say trans girls and women should not be allowed to compete in girls' and women's sports, including high school and youth levels."

"Twenty-five states have now imposed bans on them competing in schools. Even [California Democratic Governor] Gavin Newsom...recently said he thought trans athletes being allowed to participate in women's sports is 'deeply unfair,' without really elaborating on what he meant by that. But I know people have strong opinions on this subject."

Oliver then referred back to a show that aired in November 2024.

"In our post-election show, I said, 'There are vanishingly few trans girls competing in high school sports anywhere, and even if there were more, trans kids, like all kids, vary in athletic ability, and there is no evidence that they pose any threat to safety or fairness'."

"After that show aired, J.K. Rowling herself issued the single longest tweet I've ever seen in my life, in which she claimed, among other things, that I am 'happy to watch females suffer injury, humiliation, and the loss of sporting opportunities to bolster an elitist postmodern ideology'."

"Now, I stand by everything I said in that episode, but I will concede that this subject is more complicated than 'people should just use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity.'"

"And since trans participation in sports seems, for some reason, to be at the center of our politics right now, it felt like tonight might be a good time to talk about it at real length. And in doing so, we're going to try and explain a few things."

"What the facts can actually tell us about trans athletes regarding competition and safety, where much of this seems to be coming from, because it didn't crop up out of nowhere, and where it looks like things might be going."

Oliver then shared a clip from anti-trans mouthpiece and disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong.

Afterwards, Oliver stated:

"Now, clearly when it comes to questions of right and wrong in sports, Lance Armstrong might be the last person you'd call, just after the 1919 Chicago White Sox and the ear chunk that Mike Tyson bit off."

Reflecting on Armstrong's "devil's advocate" scenario where Rafa Nadal would transition strictly to win Wimbledon against Serena Williams in her prime, Oliver said:

"The thing is, hypotheticals like that circulate constantly and often center around someone transitioning solely to gain a competitive advantage. But as this trans researcher points out, that is an absurd proposition. Trans women don't transition for sports."

"Um, no one has ever said, 'Oh yeah, I think I'd like to be a woman so I can do well in women's sports'."

Oliver continued with some actual studies on cisgender men and post-pubescent boys competing against cisgender girls and women.

It's important to note that prepubescent boys tend to perform either less well or on par against girls of the same age.

Oliver posited:

"Still, let's engage with the underlying premise of that question from the world's most famous sports cheater [Lance Armstrong], that those assigned male at birth are automatically going to have certain immutable physical advantages."

"It is obviously true that on average, cisgender men and post-pubescent boys have some specific athletic performance advantages, though the relative size of that advantage also depends on the sport and the event."

"But in general, there's a lot of overlap in the average performance ranges of men and women. But crucially, when it comes to trans athletes who've medically transitioned, studies of [cisgender] athletes are not necessarily relevant."

After sharing information about the handful of studies evaluating trans women and the impact of transitioning on athletic prowess, Oliver tackled some of the major misinformation being bandied about by transphobes to bolster their bigotry.

Oliver remarked:

"And at this point, you might be saying, 'I don't need to wait for scientific research. This is all common sense, and I know what I've seen online'."

"But a lot of what you've seen may not be quite what you think it is, both when it comes to trans athletes' impact on competition or safety. And let's start with competition, because there's a big number that you tend to hear a lot."

Oliver then played clips of Fox and Newsmax telling their audiences:

"'Listen to this, a shocking report from the United Nations states over 600 female athletes have lost close to 900 medals to transgender opponents."

"'Female athletes have lost nearly 900 medals to transgender athletes'."

"'You have the United Nations study come out not long ago about 900 medals for females that ended up going to transgender athletes'."

Oliver then quipped:

"Yeah, 900 medals. That is a go-to statistic. It was even cited on the floor of the Senate during their debate over a trans sport ban and featured prominently in J. K. Rowling's latest tome."

"But we got curious about that number, so we looked at that report, and it turns out, first, it wasn't produced by the UN. It was submitted to it by a special rapporteur who herself said its findings 'do not necessarily represent those of the UN.'"

"And if you go online to the footnote that it cites and click on it, you get sent to this website, She Won, where anyone could submit an instance of a cis woman losing to a trans woman anywhere in the world in any competition, big or small."

How small and how inconsequential did entries on the list get?

"The author of that report insisted to us, 'I did not rely only on this source,' but I will say the numbers she cites do match what was on the site back then, and they included competitions all the way back to 2001 and down to the level of a fun run in Topeka, Kansas."

"And an Irish dance competition as well as activities where gender confers no advantage, like poker. Also, over a hundred entries on the list are in the field of disc golf which, if you're unfamiliar, involves frisbees being thrown into this thing..."

Amateur fun runs, Irish dance, poker, and disc golf‽‽

Oliver continued to chip away at the numbers on the not-at-all-a-UN report that so many people have cited.

The Last Week Tonight host explained:

"And as if that weren't enough, the way they got to that 900 number has to do with how they counted the wins. Because on the list, one trans woman finishing first counts as three denied medals [instead of just one]."

"The logic being, the second place finisher should have come first, the third place finisher should have come second, and the fourth place finisher should have come third."

"And look, some will argue it doesn't matter how minor the competition, the women on that list were all unfairly deprived of their rightful place. But even some of those women don't feel that way. This one, a disc golfer, has publicly stated she's happy to see trans people in disc golf."

"And an amateur cyclist named Kristen Chalmers is actually on the list twice because, for some reason, a single race she lost is on there under two different spellings of her name. She came in third behind two trans women, but she has made it clear they are her friends and she has no problem competing with them."

A clip of Chalmers showed her saying:

"I think that it would be ridiculous to say that my life is being ruined by getting third in this. It would be ridiculous to sacrifice other people getting to have fun in a sport that they love on the weekends so that I could say I was the state champion."

Which is the issue with many of these state and federal bills and executive orders. Rarely are the people yelling the loudest the actual cisgender female athletes who compete against trans women or girls.

Oliver continued:

"So from the 900 medals, to the scholarships these [trans] girls did not get, to the most famous fifth place finisher in human history, the competition argument is already a lot weaker than it tends to get presented."

Oliver then dismantled the right's argument about safety concerns, saying in part:

"And look, some trans kids are going to injure their opponents the same way any kid will. And concussions are horrible, although they're also not that uncommon in youth sports, given between one to two million of them happen every year."

"And that's the thing. The standard can't be 'no trans kid ever injures someone' because that's an impossible standard. And yes, if trans kids were injuring cis kids at much higher rates, then we could have safety concerns to address. But there's no evidence that's the case."

Oliver then addressed the heart of transgender sports, bathroom, and healthcare bans.

He stated:

"And at this point, it is worth asking, what is really behind all this vitriol? Because again, I do believe that some speaking against trans participation are just talking about women's sports. And the truth is, at the elite levels of competition, this isn't a cut and dry issue. But in many other cases, the opposition comes from a much more toxic place."

"It is not just about denying trans women the right to play. It's about denying them the right to exist. [Republican House Speaker] Mike Johnson basically said as much after the House passed its ban on trans athletes when he said this."

"'We know from scripture and from nature that men are men and women are women and men cannot become women'."

Responding to the self-described Christian nationalist, Oliver said:

"That's right, Mike. As scripture tells us, men are men, and women are women, and God is his own son, and some mothers are virgins, and some mothers-in-law are pillars of salt, and some daughters are sex partners, and colorful coats are dream-tellers, and brothers are murderers, but also brothers are backup husbands for wives, and babies can be for splitting in half, and water is wine, and also with you, sorry, and with your spirit."

Oliver added:

"The thing is, this current uproar is rooted in a very intentional political strategy by the right to find a new issue after losing the war over same-sex marriage. Conservatives' embrace of this issue came after the failure of so-called 'bathroom bills' around the country, which were widely criticized."

"The president of the American Principles Project, a socially conservative advocacy group, has openly said, 'We pivoted to the sports issue and it's been wildly successful.' He even explained the reason for that, arguing what it did was 'it got opponents of the LGBT movement comfortable with talking about transgender issues.'"

"And he's kind of right about that. Because it does seem like right now you can basically say anything you want about trans people as long as you tag on 'in sports' after it. 'I don't think trans women should be allowed...in sports.' 'I don't think trans women are women...in sports.'"

"But it is noticeable just how fast the 'in sports' part can drop off once people feel that permission has been granted, to the point that some leading voices in this movement are now circling back to bathroom bans, an issue that a decade ago people felt was a bridge too far."

"And the reason this has been an easier sell for the right is that it's possible to frame all of this as being about 'protecting women and girls.' Although, if that is truly the aim, there is reason for them to feel a lot less safe, thanks to these bills, as, in practice, they can encourage adults to police the bodies of literal children."

And as seen at the last several summer Olympics, gender nonconforming cisgender women—like boxer Imane Khelif and runner Caster Semenya—are more often targeted by transphobes like JK Rowling and Elon Musk than trans women.

Oliver shared instances of cisgender girls being targeted by adults—often in positions of authority—on social media because they didn't conform to what a transphobe thinks a girl should look like.

Oliver also pointed out Republican inaction when it comes to the real dangers facing children in youth sports.

He shared:

"...insistence on aggressively legislating around a handful of trans kids, while neglecting much bigger systemic issues around youth sports just isn't a one-off. Take Kentucky."

"Three years ago, they passed one of these [trans sports] bans, even though at the time, there was just one known trans athlete, a 12-year-old, competing in schools there."

"The governor, to his credit, vetoed it, but the legislators would not let it rest, because on the second to last day of the session, they voted to override his veto..."

"...but the urgency on display there notably didn't seem to apply to other issues concerning youth athlete safety. Because last year, an investigation revealed a long-standing pattern of sexual abuse in youth sports in Kentucky."

"It pointed out a bill that might have helped prevent that, was this one, which would have made it harder for school personnel, including coaches who've been accused of misconduct, to move from district to district. It's been called 'the most comprehensive bill' to address the issue."

"Unfortunately, it stalled out in the legislature for an infuriating reason. Because it made it through both chambers and only needed a procedural vote to be sent to the governor to sign, but it just sat there. And on the last day of the session, it still hadn't passed, and then this happened."

Oliver then shared a clip of Kentucky legislators recessing because they were hungry without a final vote on the bill to protect child athletes from abuse by adults.

Oliver said:

"Yeah, they f**ked off to dinner, and guess what? They never came back to vote. So it seems this is how the Kentucky State House works. When there is one kid who wants to play field hockey, it's Pearl Harbor, but when there's a long-standing pattern of sexual abuse, it's, 'Sorry, we got a 6:00 p.m. reservation at the Cheesecake Factory.'"

Oliver added:

"And for those who've played girl's sports, this sudden interest from lawmakers is a little hard to take, given, for so long, it's meant having to put up with constant slights and indignities, from worse playing fields to smaller locker rooms to creepy coaches no one will do anything about to always having to play your games early while the 8:00 p.m. boys' game gets treated like the main event."

"I cannot tell you how many times multiple writers who worked on this story and who played women's sports brought that last point up. And now we seem to be hell-bent on adding to all that the fear that if girls get too short a haircut or go to the gym too much, a stranger on Facebook is gonna start 'just asking questions.'"

"And look, this is the part of the show where I usually talk about what to do, but a lot of this is currently out of our hands. When it comes to state-level bans, thankfully, court orders are blocking enforcement of them in all of these states."

"And courts are also going to have to weigh in on Trump's executive order, which some states have admirably resisted, none more memorably than Maine, whose governor had this standoff with Trump."

Oliver then played the now infamous interaction during a White House meeting with the nation's governors.

It began with Trump saying:

"I understand Maine... Is Maine here, the governor of Maine? Are you not going to comply with it? Well, we are the federal law. Well, you better do it. You better do it because you're not going to get any federal funding at all if you don't. You better comply because otherwise you're not getting any federal funding."

Maine Democratic Governor Janet Mills—who served as Attorney General during Tea Party Governor Paul LePage's tenure—replied simply:

"I'll see you in court."

AMC

You can watch the entire episode of Last Week Tonight With John Oliver here:

- YouTubeyoutu.be