Riley Gaines by Gage Skidmore (left), Simone Biles by Ocoudis (right)
Olympic gymnast Simone Biles sparked controversy this week after attacking conservative activist and former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines, who criticized the presence of a male athlete on an all-girls softball team in Minnesota.
The online feud began June 6 after the Minnesota State High School League posted a photo celebrating the 2025 girls’ softball championship team, which included one male player. The league disabled comments on the post, prompting Gaines to respond on X.
“Comments off lol,” Gaines wrote. “To be expected when your star player is a boy.”
Biles responded with a heated reply, accusing Gaines of being a “sore loser.” The comment appeared to reference Gaines’ tie for fifth place with male swimmer Lia Thomas at the 2022 NCAA women’s championships.
“You’re truly sick, all of this campaigning because you lost a race. Straight up sore loser,” Biles wrote in a now-viral reply. “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!!!!!”
In a follow-up comment, Biles added, “Bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male.”
Gaines quickly responded in the comment section: “This is actually so disappointing. It’s not my job or the job of any woman to figure out how to include men in our spaces…Men don’t belong in women’s sports and I say that with my full chest.”
In a separate post, Gaines referenced Biles’ history as a sexual abuse survivor under disgraced team doctor Larry Nassar.
“All the horrific sexual abuse @Simone_Biles witnessed and spoke out against caused by one man, yet believes women should be forced to strip naked in front of men to validate the man’s feelings,” Gaines wrote.
Nassar, who abused hundreds of gymnasts, including Biles, Aly Raisman, and Gabby Douglas, is serving a sentence of 40 to 175 years in prison.
Two days later, Gaines resurfaced a 2017 tweet from Biles that appeared to contradict her current stance. While the original post Biles was responding to has since been deleted, her reply remains public.
“[G]ood thing guys don’t compete against girls or he’d take all the gold medals !!” Biles wrote at the time.
“Oop. Don’t you hate it when your past self completely undermines your current nonsensical argument?” Gaines responded. “How has 2025 Simone reconciled with the fact 2017 Simone was a ‘truly sick bully’ by her own standard?”
Gaines has repeatedly emphasized that her activism for the exclusion of men in women’s sports stems from firsthand experience. In a 2023 interview with CatholicVote, she defended her stance.
“It is not kind to put a man in a women’s locker room, and it is not inclusive to allow a man to take opportunities away from women,” she said.
Reflecting on her time competing against Thomas, she continued, “I felt like our mental preparation was severely hindered, not just because we knew we were going to be competing against a male, which of course feels like you’re competing with your hands tied behind your back. But also the locker room piece. When you’re in the locker room undressing next to someone who is fully equipped with and exposing male genitalia.”
