Simone Biles spars with Riley Gaines on social media over trans athlete debate
Simone Biles took offense to OutKick contributor Riley Gaines calling out a Minnesota high school whose softball team won a state championship Friday with a transgender pitcher.
Marissa Rothenberger, a transgender athlete, tossed a shutout to continue a dominant postseason and give Champlin Park High School a state championship.
The Minnesota State High School League posted a photo of the team on social media after the game, and Gaines noted the comments on X were turned off.
'To be expected when your star player is a boy,' Gaines wrote.
Biles, a seven-time Olympic gold medalist, saw the post and told Gaines she was 'truly sick.'
'All of this campaigning because you lost a race. Straight up sore loser,' Biles wrote to Gaines, who competed against trans swimmer Lia Thomas in 2022.
'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!! But instead… You bully them… One things for sure is no one in sports is safe with you around!!!!!'
3 Simone Biles, of the United States, waits to perform on the vault during the artistic gymnastics women's final at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, July 27, 2021, in Tokyo.
AP
In another post, Biles added, 'bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male.'
'This is actually so disappointing. It's not my job or the job of any woman to figure out how to include men in our spaces. You can uplift men stealing championships in women's sports with YOUR platform. Men don't belong in women's sports and I say that with my full chest,' Gaines responded.
Gaines added in a separate post, 'My take is the least controversial take on the planet. Simone Biles being a male-apologist at the expense of young girls' dreams? Didn't have that on my bingo card. Maybe she could compete in pommel horse and rings in 2028.'
3 Riley Gaines, activist and host of Gaines for Girls podcast and author of Swimming Against the Current, speaking at an event hosted by Turning Point USA at the University of Maryland, in the Reckord Armory at the University of Maryland in College Park, MD.
ZUMAPRESS.com
'And the subtle hint at 'body-shaming' ???? Plzzzz I'm 5'5,' Gaines also said in response to the personal attack.
Biles did not go as far as saying transgender athletes belong in competition against girls and women.
When an X user told Biles 'there is a reason they have rings in men's gymnastics, and not women's,' Biles questioned the users 'comprehension skills.'
3 Simone Biles of the United States during the Women's Team Final during the 2020 Olympics.
REUTERS
'Can you even read? I see we are lacking comprehension skills as well…..' Biles wrote. Biles did recommend a transgender category in her first post to Gaines.
Studies have shown that nearly 80% of people believe that biological males should stay out of girls and women's sports.
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