Riley Gaines

And I think a lot of this truly, again, being a college athlete during the time of COVID, I think that's when they learned they could control us.

Because, again, our universities told us during that time, my junior year, the vaccines were mandatory.

You had to get the vaccine.

Me, look, at this point, I'd already had COVID, right?

I had the natural, I had the antibodies, which I thought was the best natural immunity.

I'm young.

I'm healthy.

I'm not anti-vax or anything like that.

But I just didn't really see the point of me getting the COVID vaccine.

And so...

I said, no.

I said, I'm not getting that.

They said, Riley, remember, you're the team captain.

You're going to be hurting your team if you don't get it.

And you're supposed to be the leader, Riley.

And so I really struggled with this because I didn't want to be hurting my team.

Before my own personal success, I cared about how my team did, how my teammates did.

And so I really struggled with this.

But finally, I realized, you know,

mandatory didn't actually mean law.