Former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines floated a wild conspiracy theory she has surrounding famed author and disability rights activist Helen Keller.
“OK, I’m a pretty horrible conspiracy theorist, to be honest with you,” Gaines said during a recent episode of “The Katie Miller Podcast” when asked if there was a conspiracy theory that she believed in. “ Like Helen Keller, if I’m being honest with you, did she really exist? Like, did she really exist? I can’t wrap my mind around it. Like you’re telling me there’s a woman who can’t see, she can’t hear, but she wrote a book?”
Gaines went on to reiterate that she’s the “worst conspiracy theorist ever.”
“I’m way too naive to believe that actually happened,” she said. “That’s going to be the part that’s clipped, by the way. It’s going to be, like, ‘Riley is so stupid and doesn’t actually think Helen Keller is real.’ OK, fine, maybe, but I don’t know — I think it doesn’t sit right with me.”
Keller lost her sight and hearing when she was 19 months old in 1882, but went on to have a prolific career as writer, activist and lecturer.
Gaines, a 12-time NCAA All-American swimmer for the University of Kentucky, became known as a conservative figure in 2022 when she tied for fifth place with transgender swimmer Lia Thomas in the 200-yard NCAA freestyle championship. Since then, Gaines became a vocal protester of transgender women in women’s sports and has discussed this with figures including Tucker Carlson.
Gaines made headlines in 2025 when she praised President Donald Trump signing an executive order that prevented transgender women from competing in women’s sports.
“I am grateful for President Donald Trump’s swift action in fulfilling his campaign promise to protect women’s sports,” she wrote in a piece for Fox News.
That same year, Gaines and her husband, Louis Barker, welcomed their first child together. Since giving birth to daughter Margot, Gaines has been candid about navigating motherhood and her conservative activism.
“I have a village around me,” Gaines told Kate Miller. “So my family — I’ve got my parents, my grandparents, my siblings — all of us live within five minutes of each other. So there’s a lot of help there. And I don’t think it can be overstated just how helpful my husband is in all of this, too. … All of the ups and downs and everything in between, he is like a constant throughout all of that.”
