Simone Biles Dials Down Her Criticism Of Riley Gaines

After getting “personal” in recent tweets, Simone Biles took some time to reflect on her comments about conservative activist Riley Gaines and transgender athletes. The three-time Olympian posted a statement on June 10, apologizing for her harsh words while reiterating her belief in fairness and inclusivity in sport.

A Fiery Back-And-Forth

Biles fired the first shot in the two athletes’ war of words on June 6, after seeing that Gaines, a former college swimmer and vocal critic of the participation of transgender women in women’s sports, had posted a snarky comment about a young trans athlete.

“Comments off lol,” Gaines wrote in response to a tweet celebrating the Champlin Park Rebels, the winners of Minnesota’s class AAAA girls softball championship. “To be expected when your star player is a boy.”

Quoting Gaines’ X post, Biles replied, calling the conservative activist “truly sick” and a “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 [athletes] feel safe in sports,” she wrote, in part. She suggested a “transgender category” as one possible solution and accused Gaines of bullying trans athletes instead. Then, in another tweet, she added, “bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male.”

Backlash & An Apology

Gaines used social media for her own response, including posting a video in which she called Biles out for choosing to “personally attack and body-shame” her. Even some of Biles’ supporters felt that aspect of her criticism went too far, and the gymnast seemed to ultimately come to the same conclusion.

“I wanted to follow up from my last tweets,” she wrote on June 10. “I’ve always believed competitive equity & inclusivity are both essential in sport. The current system doesn’t adequately balance these important principles, which often leads to frustration and heated exchanges, and it didn’t help for me to get personal with Riley, which I apologize for.”

Biles then went on to further address the “sensitive, complicated issues” at hand, saying she “[doesn’t ] have the answers or solutions.” She does, however, want everyone to prioritize “empathy and respect,” and she highlighted a major part of her original criticism of Gaines: that she was “singling out children for public scrutiny in ways that feel personal and harmful.”

“Individual athletes—especially kids—should never be the focus of criticism of a flawed system they have no control over,” Biles added. “I believe sports organizations have a responsibility to come up with rules supporting inclusion while maintaining fair competition. We all want a future for sport that is fair, inclusive, and respectful.”

Their heated exchange echoes the larger debate over the issue that is currently taking place in the United States. As president, Donald Trump has taken steps to ban trans athletes from taking part in women’s and girls’ sports, including signing an executive order that claims to end “the war on women’s sports” in February. Meanwhile, San Francisco’s Office of Transgender Initiatives cites scientific evidence suggesting that transgender women are not unfairly advantaged, and argues that trans athletes have been made into “an effective scapegoat for politicians.”