Former NCAA swimmer and women’s sports advocate Riley Gaines responded to Olympic gymnast Simone Biles after a fiery exchange on social media over the weekend, calling Biles’s attacks “venomous” and reaffirming her belief that transgender women should not compete in women’s sports.

The controversy began when Gaines criticized the Minnesota State High School League for turning off comments on a post celebrating the championship of the Champlin Park High School girls softball team, which has a transgender athlete.

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“Comments off lol,” Gaines wrote on X. “To be expected when your star player is a boy.”

Biles, a seven-time Olympic medalist and public figure, entered the fray, accusing Gaines of being a “sore loser” who is “truly sick.”

She said Gaines’s activism was driven by bitterness over past race results and called her a bully, saying, “One thing’s for sure — no one in sports is safe with you around.”

Biles added, “Bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male.”

Gaines fired back, appearing on Fox News’s The Will Cain Show on Monday to address the comments and the broader cultural debate.

“I was shocked and heartbroken,” Gaines said. “This is someone I looked up to. But now she’s defending the inclusion of biological males in female sports and calling me, a woman, a man? That’s not uplifting — it’s gaslighting.”

Gaines, who has become a national voice for women’s sports, also mentioned Biles’s past experience with abuse at the hands of disgraced USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, suggesting that Biles should be more sensitive to protecting women’s privacy and safety in sports spaces.

“All the horrific sexual abuse Simone Biles witnessed and spoke out against was caused by one man,” Gaines posted. “Yet she now believes women should strip naked in front of men to validate their feelings?”

During the Fox News segment, Gaines expressed disappointment over how the cultural elite, including Biles, have ignored overwhelming public sentiment against allowing transgender women in women’s sports. Polls show that a majority of people support separating athletic categories by biological sex.

“This is not a divisive issue,” Gaines said. “It’s a unifying one. Everyday Americans, 90% or more, agree on this. But you have Simone Biles laughing about it on a private jet. It’s out of touch, and people see right through it.”

Gaines also said that the backlash to Biles’s comments galvanized even more support for her movement.

“My social platforms have exploded with people supporting fairness in women’s sports,” she said. “If anything, Simone’s attack backfired.”

Several of Biles’s former teammates have reportedly reached out to Gaines privately in agreement, according to the swimmer. Gaines added that some suspect Biles’s motivation may stem from an upcoming Netflix documentary, suggesting the posts were an attempt to boost public visibility.

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Despite the harsh words and high-profile nature of the spat, Gaines emphasized her message is not about hate but about fairness and reality.

“I know I’m on the right side of history,” she said. “I’m fighting for girls like my 16-year-old sister — and for every young woman who deserves a level playing field.”