OAN Staff Blake Wolf
12:25 PM – Sunday, June 8, 2025
U.S. Olympic gymnast Simone Biles slammed former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines for criticizing transgenders being able to compete in women’s sporting events, prompting backlash.
The public spat began after Gaines criticized a Minnesota high school – which dominated the Minnesota Girls’ state softball championship – after it was revealed that the team had a biological male.
The transgender athlete, Marissa Rothenberger, pitched a shutout victory for Champlin Park High School, prompting a response from Gaines.
“Girls’ sports in 2025: A 6-0 shutout. By a dude named Marissa. Backed 100% by Minnesota Dems. Progress!,” she wrote, going on to respond to a photo of the team holding the championship plaque along with the caption: “To be expected when your star player is a boy.”
Following Gaines’ post, Biles issued a personal attack while stating that Gaines is “truly sick.”
“Bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male @Riley_Gaines_,” Biles wrote. “@Riley_Gaines_ You’re truly sick, all of this campaigning because you lost a race. Straight up sore loser. You 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!! But instead… You bully them… One things for sure is no one in sports is safe with you around!!!!!!”
Biles’ comment was in reference to Gaines previously losing in a collegiate swim meet to transgender athlete Lia Thomas in 2022.
Additionally, Gaines issued a video response to Biles’ social media post.
“Yesterday, Simone Biles – the Olympic gymnast, the best of the best, bar none; there is no one else even remotely in her league in women’s gymnastics – I guess in an attempt to be inclusive and virtuous, decided to sell out all girls who have dreams to achieve and to succeed, and to specifically personally attack and body shame me,” Gaines stated.
“Let’s get this straight. It’s my job. It’s the women’s job/ This is what Simone Biles is saying: ‘It’s the women’s job to find a way for the men’s feelings to be validated, for their identity to be affirmed.’ That’s not my job, actually, at all. So, to say I should be doing this is insane,” she continued.
“If she wants to use her platform to uplift men in women’s sports, then, by all means. But it’s certainly not my job. And I don’t believe it’s the job of any woman to do this.”
Gaines also addressed Biles’ comment on her size, adding: “Number one, she’s acknowledging there are differences, like physiological, biological differences, between men and women in saying this. Secondly, I’m 5-foot-5, which might seem like a giant to someone who’s like 4-foot-7, 4-foot-8, but I’m pretty standard size for a woman, just, like, relatively muscular, right? Being an athlete, I would imagine Simone would understand that.”
Gaines went on to point out Biles’ history in calling out former U.S women’s national gymnastics team doctor, who was convicted of sexual crimes.
“This is a woman who has been incredibly brave in calling out and witnessing the horrific sexual abuse that she and hundreds of other female gymnasts faced at the hands of one sexual predator – that predator being Larry Nassar – in the same breathe, believing that vulnerable women should be forced to strip down naked in front of men and locker rooms, so long as it makes the man feel happy,” Gaines continued. “If Larry Nassar came out as trans, I don’t think it’s responsible or safe for him to be housed in a women’s prison.”
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