Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles tore apart former college swimmer Riley Gaines on social media Friday over her anti-transgender attack directed at a post celebrating high school softball champions.
Gaines — who, after her time as an NCAA Division I athlete, morphed into a right-wing activist targeting trans women in women’s sports — used her platform to dismiss the victory by the Minnesota team, one that conservative media outlets have fixated on in recent days as the squad reportedly includes a trans girl.
“Comments off lol. To be expected when your star player is a boy,” wrote Gaines of the post on X, formerly Twitter.
Biles wasn’t having it.
″@Riley_Gaines_ You’re truly sick, all of this campaigning because you lost a race. Straight up sore loser,” wrote Biles, referring to Gaines tying for fifth place in a 2022 NCAA Division I national championship race against swimmer Lia Thomas — the first openly trans woman to win such a national title.
The gymnast went on to suggest Gaines “should be uplifting the trans community and perhaps finding a way to make sports inclusive OR creating a new avenue where trans feel safe in sports.”
“Maybe a transgender category IN ALL sports!!” she added.
Biles took another swipe minutes later.
“bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male
@Riley_Gaines_,” she wrote.
Gaines took issue with Biles’ initial comments, writing that they’re “actually so disappointing.”
“It’s not my job or the job of any woman to figure out how to include men in our spaces,” Gaines wrote.
“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.”
The exchange arrives in the same week that President Donald Trump’s administration went after California following a 16-year-old trans athlete’s wins at the state’s track and field championship.
The victories arrived as a new rule change took effect in California allowing more girls to compete and medal in events where a trans athlete also participates.
Trump, in a post to his Truth Social platform, declared that “large scale fines will be imposed” on the state as a result of the athlete’s participation.
In February, Trump signed an executive order aimed at barring trans women and girls from competing in women’s sports. The order looks to strip federal funding from schools that “deprive” women and girls of “fair athletic opportunities.”
The Justice Department recently threatened to sue California’s public schools, as well, if they don’t split from the state’s policies on trans athletes.
Trans athletes notably represent just a small portion of the sports world.
In December, NCAA President Charlie Baker testified that he was aware of less than 10 trans college student-athletes among the half a million plus total athletes in the organization.
