USA Gymnastics' transgender policy pages offline, as Riley Gaines-Simone Biles feud rocks the sport

Fox News

4 hours ago

USA Gymnastics appeared to delete its transgender eligibility policy pages on its website. When the pages were officially taken offline is currently unknown.
The organization has come under heavy public scrutiny since Friday after Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles ignited a feud with former NCAA swimmer and conservative activist Riley Gaines on social media over the issue of trans athlete inclusion.
Previous links to three of the organization's pages outlining its transgender eligibility policies are currently offline.
One link previously led to a November 2020 announcement that the organization no longer required trans athletes to undergo sex reassignment, legal gender recognition, and hormone therapy in order to compete in the gender category of their choosing, as seen in an archive by the Wayback Machine. That page still shows up in search results, but the link now goes to a 404 error page.
Another link previously went to a three-page PDF pamphlet of USA Gymnastics guidelines for transgender and non-binary athletes, as seen in a Wayback Machine archive. That link is now inaccessible, but is still a top result on search engines.
Another link previously went to a nine-page PDF USA Gymnastics pamphlet titled "Transgender Athlete Inclusion Resources: Supporting Transgender and Non-Binary Athletes," as seen in a Wayback Machine archive. That link is also no longer accessible.
The official USA Gymnastics website's governance documents page featured the transgender and non-binary guidelines and resources pages as recently as April, as seen in a Wayback Machine archive. But now those links are absent from the governance documents page.
The Wayback Machine is unable to pinpoint exactly when a web page was deleted or changed.
Fox News Digital has reached out USA Gymnastics for comment.
The feud between Biles and Gaines has become one of the most viral topics on social media in the last three days, dominating the top trending section on X, while prompting heated debates and controversial media coverage of the issue.
Gaines said in a social media video on Saturday that multiple Team USA athletes have reached out to her to say she agrees with her stance against allowing males in women's sports.
The feud started when Biles took issue with Gaines calling out a Minnesota high school whose softball team won a state championship Friday with a transgender pitcher.
Marissa Rothenberger, a transgender athlete, threw a shutout to help Champlin Park High School win a state title.
Gaines, the host of OutKick's "Gaines for Girls" podcast, noted that comments on X were turned off on the Minnesota State High School League's post with a photo of the team on social media.
"To be expected when your star player is a boy," Gaines wrote.
Biles responded, calling Gaines "truly sick" for her comment and saying Gaines should be "uplifting" transgender athletes. Biles sent a second post on X telling Gaines to "bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male."
Biles has been the subject of widespread criticism by conservatives and women's sports rights activists alike.
President Donald Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. even joined in on the criticism with a pair of posts on X.
Other major Team USA sport governing bodies have quietly amended their transgender policies amid rising opposition to trans inclusion in women's and girls' sports.
USA Track and Field (USATF) official transgender eligibility policy now references the World Athletics guidelines on its official webpage.
USATF previously referenced the International Olympic Committee (IOC)'s policy, as seen in an archive via Wayback Machine.
The IOC allows biological males to compete in the women's category, while World Athletics bans any athlete who has undergone male puberty from competing as a woman.
USA Fencing announced in April that it is preparing to change its gender-eligibility policy, after a viral protest by women's fencer Stephanie Turner sparked mass backlash and federal intervention by protesting a trans opponent.
The organization said it is preparing to amend its current policies that allow biological males to compete with women and girls in the event that it is "forced" to change it.
"In the event that USA Fencing is forced to change its current stance in accordance with oversight bodies or federal legislation, the new policy states athletes competing in USA Fencing-sanctioned tournaments must compete according to their biological sex," the announcement read.
The proposed updated policy ensures that the women's category "will be open exclusively to athletes of the female sex." The men's category "will be open to all other athletes who are otherwise eligible for competition."
Trump signed an executive order in February to ban trans athletes from women's and girls' sports, as the majority of Americans proved to oppose biological males being allowed to compete and share locker rooms with females.
A New York Times/Ipsos survey found the vast majority of Americans, including a majority of Democrats, don't think transgender athletes should be permitted to compete in women's sports.
Of the 2,128 people who participated, 79% said biological males who identify as women should not be allowed to participate in women's sports. Of the 1,025 people who identified as Democrats or leaning Democratic, 67% said transgender athletes should not be allowed to compete with women.
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