Two podcast hosts for the New York Times-owned The Athletic have launched a scathing attack on Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham and Riley Gaines.
Hosts Charlotte Wilder and Madeline Hill seemingly claimed Cunningham and Gaines promoted a ‘right-wing grift’ through their vocal defense of women’s sports.
The comments were made on the latest episode of The Sports Gossip Show, via The Athletic Podcast Network, following weeks of heightened national debate.
Cunningham initially sparked outcry by advocating for restrictions on transgender participation in female athletics to ‘protect young girls in sport,’ before Gaines turned up at one of her WNBA games to show support for the Indiana Fever star.
Both Cunningham and Gaines have seen mixed responses to their actions, with some fans showing their support and others brutally ripping into them over the matter.
While most sports personalities have avoided wading in on the subject – such as Caitlin Clark – Wilder and Hill made their feelings on the subject extremely clear.
The Athletic podcast hosts Charlotte Wilder and Madeline Hill have ripped into Sophie Cunningham and Riley Gaines
Gaines showed her support to Cunningham by attending her game on Sunday afternoon
During a segment titled ‘Sophie Cunningham’s right-wing grift,’ Hill mocked her eight-year WNBA career while declaring that ‘she’s not the best player.’
The hosts went on to claim that Cunningham’s position was a calculated ploy to set up a post-basketball career in conservative media, predicting she would speak at the next RNC.
Wilder then turned her attention to Riley Gaines, dismissing the 12-time All-American swimmer as ‘not even a very good one.’
The dismissive remark came despite Gaines holding three Southeastern Conference individual titles and finishing her career as one of the most decorated athletes in Kentucky program history.
The podcast hosts also targeted young fans attending recent WNBA games in pro-women’s sports apparel, branding their signs and clothing as explicitly ‘anti-trans.’
Hill and Wilder went further by suggesting that young teenage girls involved in supporting Cunningham and Gaines lacked basic ‘critical thinking skills.’
The attack comes amid an escalating culture war surrounding the WNBA, which erupted after Cunningham publicly advocated for restrictions on trans participation.
On Sunday, Gaines attempted to show her support for Cunningham by attending the Indiana Fever’s game against the Minnesota Lynx, only to get shut down by staff.
Political activist Gaines claimed that a WNBA staffer told her to put down her sign which threw support behind star Cunningham amid the ongoing trans athlete debate
Gaines claimed she was told to remove the sign because it had a name written on it
Gaines brought a sign that read: ‘Sophie, Thank You – A Girl Mom.’
However, during the game, retired gymnast and friend of Gaines, Jennifer Sey, revealed that the political activist had been told to put her sign down by staff.
Gaines swiftly reposted Sey’s post on X and added: ‘There were no fewer than 1000 signs in the arena. Most with trans paraphernalia. The only person who was told to put her sign down by WNBA officials was me. Wonder why.’
She later told OutKick: ‘I checked all the sign policies before I went in there. I made sure it was like 11 by 17. That’s the sign size you could have. So, I got a ruler out.’
Gaines, a former collegiate swimmer, went on to detail how she held her sign aloft during the game – only to be swiftly shut down by a staffer, despite other fan signs.
She recalled: ‘I see an arena staffer, someone who’s on the court wearing the all-black official clothing, who points at me and mouths something. I can’t hear him because he’s so far away, but he appeared to say, ‘Put your sign down.’
‘He comes over and he says, ‘You have to take your sign down.’ I’m like, ‘No, I don’t. I checked all the sign policies before I went in there,’ Gaines said.
After asking why she couldn’t show her sign, she explained: ‘He said, ‘Because it has her name on it. It has Sophie’s name on it, so you can’t have that’.
Gaines attended the game to offer her support to Cunningham amid a wave of backlash following her comments on ‘protecting young girls’ from ‘biological men’ in sports
The tension on the sidelines carried over to the streets outside Target Center, where demonstrations turned chaotic ahead of tip-off in Minneapolis
‘My whole section at that point, they were outraged. They were like, ‘You can’t tell her she can’t have that. There’s a hundred signs right here with people’s names on it. What do you mean she can’t have it?’
She later revealed that the staffer came back and apologized over the matter.
In the end, Gaines was able to keep hold of her sign and even had Cunningham hold it as they posed for a courtside picture together after the Lynx’s 108-100 win.
Gaines, Cunningham and Sey all posed together, with the two supporters performing Cunningham’s now-iconic ‘point’ towards the camera.
Gaines also shared a picture with Cunningham on Instagram, writing: ‘I show up for @sophie_cham because she shows up for my daughter.’
Though she didn’t comment on it, the Fever star did take time to like Gaines’ post.
