Simone Biles went toe-to-toe with political activist Riley Gaines after the former competitive swimmer allegedly made comments about transgender athletes playing sports.
Gaines, 25, reposted the Minnesota State High School League’s Friday, June 6, X upload about winning a softball tournament.
“Comments off lol,” Gaines wrote on Friday. “To be expected when your star player is a boy.”
In response, Biles, 28, called out Gaines for her allegedly transphobic comments.
“@Riley_Gaines_ You’re truly sick, all of this campaigning because you lost a race. Straight-up sore loser,” Biles wrote later that day. “You should be uplifting the trans community and perhaps finding a way to make sports inclusive OR creating a new avenue where trans [people] feel safe in sports. Maybe a transgender category IN ALL sports!!”
She added, “But instead … You bully them … One thing’s for sure is no one in sports is safe with you around!!!!!”
Gaines, in response, said that she found the Olympic gymnast’s comments to be “disappointing.”
“It’s not my job or the job of any woman to figure out how to include men in our spaces,” Gaines replied. “You can uplift men stealing championships in women’s sports with YOUR platform. Men don’t belong in women’s sports, and I say that with my full chest.”
Biles fired back, further defending the transgender community.
“Bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male,” Biles wrote, tagging Gaines’ account.
In subsequent tweets and comments, Biles continued to advocate for allyship while Gaines doubled down on her perspective. Neither has further addressed their differing points of view.
Biles, for her part, has long been a supporter of the LGBTIA+ community.
“The world we live in makes me sad, but I’d do x1000000 more commercials with you just to piss everyone off,” Biles wrote via X in November 2020, referring to an Uber Eats commercial she did with nonbinary Queer Eye star Jonathan Van Ness. “The LGBTQIA will always have my support and feel welcome on my socials.”
Biles’ former teammates also praised her for advocating for others.
“After Tokyo, I said to [Simone], ‘There has to be so many people around the world that were suffering in silence and struggling with their mental health. You have no idea how many of those people you helped,’” retired gymnast Aly Raisman told Sports Illustrated in January. “She helps people feel less alone.”
In addition to supporting the LGBTQIA+ community, Biles has also shone a spotlight on mental health awareness. In 2020, she withdrew from the Olympic Games over mental health issues about suffering “the twisties” mid-competition.
“I have to focus on my mental health. I just think mental health is more prevalent in sports right now,” she said at the time. “We have to protect our minds and our bodies and not just go out and do what the world wants us to do.”
