Simone Biles slams ‘sore loser’ Riley Gaines over assaults on trans athlete

Seven-time Olympic gold medallist Simone Biles has publicly condemned former aggressive swimmer Riley Gaines for her repeated assaults on transgender athletes, calling Gaines “sick” and a “sore loser” in a strongly worded social media submit.

The change erupted Friday evening after Gaines mocked the Minnesota State High School League for turning off feedback on a submit celebrating Champlin Park High School’s ladies’ softball group, which had simply gained the state championship. One of the group’s gamers is a transgender girl.

“This championship was hijacked,” Gaines wrote on X, regarding the student-athlete as “a boy” and ridiculing the league for disabling feedback “lol”.

Biles, essentially the most embellished gymnast of all time with 11 Olympic and 30 international championship medals, had observed sufficient. In an extraordinary foray into on-line disagreement, she reposted Gaines’ tweet and replied with an immediate rebuke.

“You’re truly sick,” Biles wrote. “All of this campaigning because you lost a race. Straight up sore loser.”

The submit referenced Gaines’ efficiency on the 2022 NCAA championships, the place she tied for 5th with Lia Thomas, a transgender swimmer. Since then, Gaines has constructed a outstanding public profile lobbying in opposition to the inclusion of transgender ladies in ladies’s sports activities, turning into a fixture on right-wing media shops and showing along Donald Trump as he signed an government order banning trans women and girls from competing in ladies’s sports activities.

But Biles didn’t forestall there.

“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,” she wrote. “Maybe a transgender category IN ALL SPORTS!! But instead… You bully them… One thing for sure is no one in sports is safe with you around!!!!!”

In a follow-up submit, Biles added: “Bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male.”

Gaines temporarily fired again, calling Biles’ remarks “so disappointing” and insisting: “Men don’t belong in women’s sports and I say that with my full chest.”

A 12-time All-American swimmer on the University of Kentucky, Gaines has used her race with Thomas as the foundation for a countrywide marketing campaign opposing transgender inclusion in sports activities. She has regularly misgendered athletes in public boards and has drawn complaint from LGBTQ+ advocates and athletes alike for singling out people, steadily minors, by means of identify on social media.

In the case of Champlin Park, Gaines made more than one posts concerning the transgender pitcher, even citing the participant by means of identify and regarding her with male pronouns, regardless of the group’s vocal strengthen for his or her teammate. The Rebels gained the Class 4A identify recreation 6-0.

“She’s a great kid and a great teammate,” one trainer instructed native media after the sport. “Her teammates love having her out there.”

The feedback from Biles, who has lengthy championed psychological well being consciousness and survivor advocacy, drew swift backlash from conservative commentators, who accused the Olympic champion of hypocrisy and attention-seeking. Outkick, the right-leaning sports activities outlet the place Gaines is a standard contributor, known as her remarks “self-contradicting”.

Gaines reposted a number of replies from enthusiasts who echoed her place, arguing that Biles was once undermining ladies’s sports activities and complicated the problem by means of suggesting a separate transgender class. “It’s not my job or the job of any woman to figure out how to include men in our spaces,” Gaines wrote in reaction.

Other conservative influencers piled on, wondering why Biles selected to weigh in and accusing her of “siding with men” in ladies’s athletics. “If trans participation isn’t a big deal, why propose a separate division?” one submit learn, summing up a habitual critique in her mentions.

Despite the backlash, Biles has now not walked again her feedback. Supporters praised her for the usage of her platform to protect marginalized athletes and ward off in opposition to what they view as a trend of bullying and scapegoating by means of Gaines.