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Riley Gaines broke down the personal attack Simone Biles levied on her on social media and what it really meant for the Olympic gold medalist and one of the greatest gymnasts of all-time.
Gaines dropped the latest episode of the “Gaines for Girls” podcast on OutKick and recorded the show a few hours after Biles came after her on X. Gaines gave Biles her flowers as one of the best athletes to have ever performed in sports, but said the posts put a bad mark on her resume.
“In just two tweets, Simone Biles basically tarnished her reputation to anyone with a shred of honesty, to anyone with a moral compass and to anyone with an inherent innate desire to protect women, to fight for equal opportunity for both men and women especially as it pertains to sports,” she said. “The conclusion I’m drawing based on the response we have seen over the past 12-ish hours at this point on social media, she’s basically incinerated her legacy in just two tweets.”
Biles launched into an attack on Gaines on Friday as the former NCAA All-American swimmer reacted to a transgender athlete winning a state championship in Minnesota softball.
The Olympic gymnast called Gaines a “bully” and said that “no one in sports is safe with you around.”
USA GYMNASTICS’ TRANSGENDER POLICY PAGES OFFLINE AS RILEY GAINES-SIMONE BILES FEUD ROCKS THE SPORT
Gaines said during her podcast that she believed that Biles’ post showed she may be finished competing in gymnastics with her apparent support of transgender athletes, taking a page out of Megan Rapinoe’s playbook. Rapinoe said in 2023 she would support a transgender player on the U.S. women’s national team. She retired from the sport later that year.
“What she’s done here is pull up the ladder behind her,” Gaines said of Biles. “We’ve seen people like Megan Rapinoe do this. Simone Biles is just the latest where apparently she’s done competing. Just like Megan Rapinoe did – waited until they were done competing to take a stance on this issue, which for the life of me I cannot understand.
“Take me out of the equation. Again, I don’t care about the personal attacks. I cannot for the life of me understand why Simone Biles, in the year 2025, would advocate for this.”
Biles said she would welcome a debate or discussion to talk about the issue of transgender athletes in girls’ and women’s sports. Gaines has been at the forefront of championing fairness in women’s sports since she tied with Lia Thomas in the 2022 NCAA Championships.
“I think she blindly advocated for this without actually thinking about the effects of what this would look like,” Gaines said. “How no one would know Simone Biles if it weren’t for women’s gymnastics. … If her inclusive dream was a reality, she would have zero gold medals.”
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