Riley Gaines Crowning Simone Biles as ‘GOAT’ Despite Political Differences Resurfaces Amidst Transwoman Athlete Spat

Simone Biles and Riley Gaines went back-and-forth on X after the latter called out a girls high school softball team for winning the national championship with a trans athlete on its roster.

Riley Gaines Crowning Simone Biles as ‘GOAT’ Despite Political Differences Resurfaces Amidst Transwoman Athlete Spat

Riley Gaines and Simone Biles (Image Credits: Getty Images)

The last 24 hours have been interesting for the fan bases of Simone Biles and Riley Gaines. The latter sparked a fiery online back-and-forth with her comments about a Minnesota State High School League’s page. The high school in question, Champlin Park High School, celebrated the victory of its girls’ softball team in the state championship.

However, the school’s social media account had opted to mute all comments on this particular post. One of the players on the all-girls team is a transgender athlete, which bothered Riley Gaines. The 12-time NCAA All-American swimmer has now switched to political activism. She is a follower of right-wing politics and is one of the strongest advocates of President Trump’s bill to ban transgender athlete participation in girls’ sports.

Gaines took to X and had some words for the state champions. She reposted the tweet taunting the high school and indicating that the one trans athlete on the team was responsible for the win. Subsequently, Simone Biles called her out and did not hold back.

You’re truly sick, all of this campaigning because you lost a race. Straight up 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 feel safe in sports. Maybe a transgender category IN ALL sports!

The seven-time Olympic gold medalist called out Gaines on X for being a bully and going around spreading hate because she once lost a race to trans swimmer Lia Thomas in a 2022 NCAA freestyle championship event. Thus began the beef between two athletes, who once had an immense amount of mutual respect them. Gaines, especially, was a big fan of Biles until 24 hours ago.

Riley Gaines called Simone Biles one-of-one in a post earlier this year

The tweet posted on X by Gaines commends Simone Biles.

There’s no other gymnast even close to Simone’s level & they’re likely won’t be for a long time. Some of her skills don’t seem humanly possible. (I don’t care) about her politics, she’s goated.

This post is interesting because of the language in it. The last part, especially, where Gaines mentions that she does not care about Simone Biles’ political preferences, and praises her talent by calling her the greatest of all time. Note that this post was written just six months earlier, so not a lot of time has elapsed since.

Simone Biles and Riley Gaines
Riley Gaines went from being a fan to actively debating Simone Biles on X (Images via Open Source/X)

However, after Biles shot back at her, Gaines forgot all about her earlier tweet. Their differing political preferences became a bone of contention once the respected Olympian lashed out. Biles subsequently doubled down on her initial comments.

Bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male.

In this case, Biles objected to two things: the first being Riley Gaines bullying kids much younger than her, and the second being her targeting transgender athletes rather than advocating for a separate class exclusive to trans persons.

Of course, Riley Gaines did not just sit there silently. She lashed out with her own barrage of attacks directed toward Biles.

It’s not my job or the job of any woman to figure out how to include men in our spaces.

The former All-American reiterated that it was not her job to find ways to include transgender athletes in women’s sports. She went on to post a clip of Simone Biles testifying against Larry Nassar in court, and a screenshot of the Olympian’s tweets defending trans athletes in women’s sports.

Gaines compared both of these situations and attempted to point out the different reactions by Biles in each of these instances. She suggested that when Biles had to speak out against the predatory man she had to endure, she left no stone unturned; however, when it was her turn to speak out against other girls’ enduring predatory men, her reaction was different.

Subsequently, Biles stopped responding to Gaines. However, the swimmer-turned-activist did not take her foot off the pedal as she continued to call the Olympian out for personally attacking “someone who stands up for women and girls.”

This is not the first time that Riley Gaines has called out a transgender athlete on social media. However, at times, she has gone on to misgender athletes, which has attracted justified criticism. Despite her comments, Champlin Park High School backed its athlete.

She’s a great kid and a great teammate. Her teammates love having her out there.

As per Champlin Park High School

One of the coaching staff told local media following the Rebels’ 6-0 victory in the tournament. The back-and-forth attracted mixed reactions, with some siding with Gaines and a few backing up Biles. It remains to be seen if Biles chooses to respond to the former swimmer.

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