Riley Gaines Lawsuit Gains New Voice: Sprinter Carolina Hill Opens Up on Competing Against A Man

Caroline Hill, a former collegiate sprinter and team captain at RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology), has gone public as a plaintiff in Riley Gaines’ lawsuit challenging the inclusion of male athletes in women’s sports. 

Riley Gaines explains why she is finished saying "biological female" on the upcoming "OutKick on Fox" primetime special.

Before stepping into the spotlight, Hill served as the first RIT women’s track athlete to publicly speak out about sharing locker rooms and competition with a male teammate, Sadie Schreiner, whom she saw as a direct competitor who broke her 200-meter and 300-meter school records.

Want to hear Caroline Hill’s full interview? Check out Riley Gaines’ Gaines for Girls podcast here

Hill revealed on OutKick’s "Gaines for Girls" podcast that she first joined the lawsuit anonymously because of the pressure to support a male athlete competing against women. 

"I did join the lawsuit anonymously, and it was definitely out of fear," Hill shared.

Hill admitted the decision wasn’t due to a lack of courage, but to survive in an environment where speaking out could have cost her everything.

"As much as I hate to say it, I wanted to speak out and give a voice to women who were in a similar situation as me, but the environment I was in was, in my opinion, not a safe one to do that in."

Hill added, "I was spending every single day with my teammates, with my coaches, on campus, and it was my last year of school. I wanted to graduate, do well in my classes, and do well in my track and field career."

Only after she graduated and left campus did Hill feel free to put her name behind the lawsuit.

"It was a really tough decision whether or not to be anonymous at first. But after graduating, I felt like, okay, I’m safe," Hill continued. 

"I left the school, I left campus, and now I can speak out. But it is kind of ridiculous that I would even have to consider being silenced because of the environment I was in. That just goes to show how intolerant it was."

Hill also detailed the stress she faced in the competition itself. 

"The officials can often be very abrasive and unforgiving. If you miss something and ask, ‘Oh, I’m sorry, can you repeat that?’ it isn’t always received well, and that can cause extra anxiety, especially at a competition where being focused is so important."

For Hill, the intimidation, the anxiety, and the culture of silence are exactly why she believes Riley Gaines’ fight matters. 

What started in anonymity is now a public stand.

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