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Simone Biles surprisingly sparred on social media with OutKick host Riley Gaines Friday, and Gaines has responded.
Biles took offense to 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.
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Simone Biles and Riley Gaines had a war of words over transgender athletes in girls sports. (Imagn)
Gaines, the host of the “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.
OLYMPIAN SIMONE BILES FACES FIERCE BACKLASH AFTER CLASH WITH RILEY GAINES OVER TRANS ATHLETES DEBATE
Biles responded, calling Gaines “truly sick” for her comment and saying Gaines should be “uplifting” transgender athletes.
Gaines responded with a video on social media.
“Yesterday, Simone Biles — the Olympic gymnast, the best of the best, bar none; there is no one even remotely in her league — I guess, in an attempt to be inclusive and virtuous, decided to sell out all girls who have dreams to achieve and to succeed, and to specifically personally attack and body shame me,” Gaines said.
“Let’s get this straight. It’s my job. It’s the women’s job. This is what Simone Biles is saying: It’s the women’s job to find a way for the men’s feelings to be validated, for their identity to be affirmed. That’s not my job, actually, at all. So, to say I should be doing this is insane.
Riley Gaines has championed fairness in women’s sports. (XX-XY Athletics)
“If she wants to use her platform to uplift men and women’s sports, then, by all means. But it’s certainly not my job. And I don’t believe it’s the job of any woman to do this.”
Biles’ comments to Gaines included a dig at the former college swimmer losing to Lia Thomas, a trans swimmer, in 2022.
“All of this campaigning because you lost a race. Straight up sore loser,” Biles wrote.
“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!!!!!”
Simone Biles of the U.S. during the women’s team final at the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games at Bercy Arena July 30, 2024. (Kyle Terada/USA Today Sports)
Gaines also addressed a second post from Biles, which told Gaines to “bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male.”
“Number one, she’s acknowledging there are differences, like physiological, biological differences, between men and women in saying this,” Gaines responded. “Secondly, I’m 5-foot-5, which might seem like a giant to someone who’s like, 4-foot-7, 4-foot-8, but I’m pretty standard size for a woman, just, like, relatively muscular, right? Being an athlete, I would imagine Simone would understand that.
“But I weigh like 135 pounds, 5-foot-5 of pretty much pure muscle. Again, if anyone would understand that, you would think it’s Simone Biles, a woman who has historically been scrutinized for having a very muscular, masculine-looking body.”
Finally, Gaines commended Biles for calling out the horrible sexual abuse acts committed by former Team USA gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar. However, Gaines believes there’s a contradiction.
Riley Gaines is sworn in during a House Oversight Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services hearing on Capitol Hill Dec. 5, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
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“This is a woman who has been incredibly brave in calling out and witnessing the horrific sexual abuse that she and hundreds of other female gymnasts faced at the hands of one sexual predator — that predator being Larry Nassar — in the same breath, believing that vulnerable women should be forced to strip down naked in front of men and locker rooms, so long as it makes the man feel happy,” Gaines said.
“If Larry Nassar came out as trans, I don’t think it’s responsible or safe for him to be housed in a women’s prison.”
Studies have shown that nearly 80% of people believe that biological males should stay out of girls and women’s sports.
Fox News’ Ryan Morik contributed to this report.
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Scott Thompson is a sports writer for Fox News Digital.
