Simone Biles attempted to apologize to Riley Gaines, after she criticized the former collegiate swimmer for defending female athletes against competing against biological men, but the mea culpa fell flat on social media.
The on-going debate around transgender athletes in women’s sports resulted in an X dispute between Olympic champion Biles and Gaines in recent days. The argument brewed from Gaines criticizing the Minnesota State High School League for turning off comments for a post celebrating Champlin Park High School softball team’s win, which has a transgender athlete.
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Biles then responded to Gaines, calling her a “sore loser” and “truly sick.”
The X feud continued with conservative public figures siding with Gaines and criticizing Biles online.
Former ESPN anchor turned podcast host Sage Steele responded to the feud on Monday, stating Biles argued in “such an angry, vile, attacking way,” shocking many people.
Steele also noted that Biles is being hypocritical, especially after a tweet from 2017 resurfaced, where Biles said if she’d compete against men, “she would have no gold medals.”
In Biles’s apology tweet on Tuesday, she tried to justify herself, writing she “was not advocating for policies that compromise fairness in women’s sports,” but was criticizing “singling out children for public scrutiny in ways that feel personal and harmful.”
“I’ve always believed competitive equity and inclusivity are both essential in sport,” Biles wrote. ”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 blamed the sports industry for allowing transgender criticisms, instead of blaming the involvement of transgender athletes in women’s sports.
“Individual athletes—especially kids—should never be the focus of criticism of a flawed system they have no control over. I believe sports organizations have a responsibility to come up with rules supporting inclusion while maintaining fair competition,” Biles wrote. “We all want a future for sport that is fair, inclusive and respectful.”
Both sides came after Biles’s apology, including prominent conservatives.
Conservative podcast host, Megyn Kelly, in an X post said “I don’t believe one word of this PR drafted back tracking.It doesn’t sound anything like (I mean style) the original posts which we know were her.”
Founder and CEO of XX-XY Athletics, Jennifer Sey, also came after Biles, writing that there isn’t “anything complicated about this issue.”
“No one is being banned. Sex is binary. Boys can compete in boys. Everyone is included. Unless they aren’t good enough to make the team. Which is competitive sports,” Sey wrote. “To defend men who say they are women—at the expense of actual women—is to be an actual “handmaiden for the patriarchy.”
Gaines has accepted Biles’s apology on X for the personal attacks, “including the ones where she body-shamed” her, but doesn’t accept her justification.
“The boys are publicly humiliating the girls. To suggest that women and girls must be silent or ignore a boy who is PUBLICLY hurting or humiliating them is wrong,” Gaines wrote. “You can’t have any empathy and compassion for the girls if you’re ignoring when young men are harming or abusing them. I am not ashamed to be a voice for the voiceless.”
SAGE STEELE SIDES WITH GAINES IN FEUD WITH ‘HYPOCRITICAL’ BILES OVER PROTECTING WOMEN’S SPORTS
In her response, Gaines does agree with Biles that the blame is on the lawmakers. She noted that she joined President Donald Trump in signing his Executive Order to keep men out of women’s sports, and is suing the NCAA to stand with women to help resolve the issue.
“Women’s sports can’t be used as an excuse for girls to center their feelings and validation of men and boys,” Gaines wrote. “I welcome you to the fight to support fair sports and a future for female athletes. Little girls deserve the same shot to achieve that you had.”