Simone Biles wasn’t afraid to dive headfirst into controversy to call out behavior she found toxic.

Riley Gaines—a former college swimmer who has become an advocate for banning trans girls and trans women from competing in girls' and women’s sports—drew Biles' ire June 6, when she mocked the Minnesota State High School League.

The league had turned off comments on an X post celebrating the 2025 Softball State Champion Champlin Park, whose 17-year-old star pitcher is trans.

"Comments off lol," Gaines wrote. “To be expected when your star player is a boy."

In a June 6 X post, Biles called the 25-year-old Fox News pundit “truly sick” and “a sore loser,” seemingly in reference to Gaines tying for fifth place with Lia Thomas, a trans woman, in a race at the 2022 Women’s NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships. The gymnast, 28, also slammed Gaines for sowing division and punching down instead of using her platform to find a way to “make sports inclusive” or create “a new avenue where trans feel safe in sports."

Gaines was unfazed, calling the 11-time Olympic medalist’s response “so disappointing.”

Of course, that was only the beginning.

Their war of words went viral, and Biles eventually offered an apology for getting personal instead of just arguing on behalf of her position.

Gaines, however, was happy to keep invoking their feud, even bringing it up while confirming to a Turning Point USA audience that she’s pregnant with her first child.

Read on for all the details as to how Biles vs. Gaines started and how it’s going:

Conservative activist Riley Gaines apparently had something to say to the Minnesota State High School League, which celebrated Champlin Park High School’s 2025 Class AAAA softball state championship in a June 6 X post.

Finding the comments section deactivated for anyone not already followed or mentioned by the league’s account, Gaines—a former swimmer at the University of Kentucky—reposted the happy team photo and wrote, “Comments off lol…To be expected when your star player is a boy.”

The triumphant Champlin Park team included a 17-year-old pitcher who’s a trans girl.

Happening to catch Gaines’ post misgendering the teen softball player, Simone Biles wasn’t having it.

“You’re truly sick, all of this campaigning because you lost a race,” the seven-time Olympic gold medalist posted on X June 6, tagging Gaines. “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!!”

She continued, “But instead… You bully them… One things for sure is no one in sports is safe with you around!!!!!”

The race Biles was referring to was Gaines’ fifth-place tie in the 200-yard freestyle with University of Pennsylvania athlete Lia Thomas, a trans woman, at the 2022 Women’s NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships.

Gaines publicly slammed the NCAA for allowing Thomas to compete in the women’s field. She later testified before Congress about what, to her, constitutes fairness in women’s sports and joined a dozen other college athletes in filing a 2024 lawsuit against the NCAA, alleging violations of their rights under Title IX.

In February 2025, the NCAA changed its policy to allow only athletes assigned female at birth to compete in women’s sports.

Responding to Biles minutes later, Gaines wrote on X, “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.”

Biles—who is 4-foot-8—swiftly added, again tagging the 5-foot-5 athlete, “bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male.”

Both Gaines’ previous comment and this one were timestamped 4:25 p.m., so it’s unclear which landed first.

On June 6, a few hours after their initial exchange, Gaines posted video to X of Biles’ 2021 testimony to Congress about the abuse she and others suffered at the hands of former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar, juxtaposed with Biles’ post slamming Gaines. The former swimmer wrote, “Simone Biles when she had to endure a predatory man Vs Simone Biles when other girls have to endure predatory men.”

Calling Biles “the best of the best, bar none” in her sport, Gaines further accused the gymnast in a June 7 Instagram video—titled “my response to Simone Biles after she personally attacked & body shamed me…”—of selling out women and girls.

“If she wants to use her platform to uplift men in women’s sports,” Gaines reiterated, “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 promoted body positivity, Gaines continued, “then she has the nerve to say that I look like a man. Not to mention, 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. And 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 added, “If Larry Nassar came out as trans, would Simone think it’s responsible or safe for him to be housed in a woman’s prison?”

While Biles didn’t budge on her support for inclusion in sports and respectful discourse around trans athletes, she apologized in a June 10 post for taking pointed jabs at Gaines.

“I’ve always believed competitive equity & 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. These are sensitive, complicated issues that I truly don’t have the answers or solutions to, but I believe it starts with empathy and respect. I was not advocating for policies that compromise fairness in women’s sports.”

The gymnast continued, referencing how Gaines had targeted a high school kid in her post that triggered the back and forth, “My objection is to be singling out children for public scrutiny in ways that feel personal and harmful. 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. We all want a future for sport that is fair, inclusive, and respectful.”

Appearing on The Stephen A. Smith Show podcast June 10, Gaines said she stood by her Nassar comments “a hundred percent,” but took the chance to further explain herself.

“First of all, for clarity, I believe Larry Nassar is a monster who should spend every single waking second for the rest of his life miserable and rotting away in prison,” Gaines said. “Me and Simone certainly agree there.”

But, she continued, “Does it get more perverted than standing in the shower, totally undressed, when a 6-foot-4 man approaches you, stands in the shower head next to you, undresses himself fully naked and watches you shower? That's the context I was drawing. To me, that is sexual abuse.”

Both she and Biles got “emotional,” Gaines said, but she maintained that it should be “just as easy to condemn those who attempt to normalize or think it’s not on a scale of gross sexual offense against women and girls to have men undressing and showering next to women.”

Biles’ husband of two years, NFL player Jonathan Owens, shared his wife’s post clarifying her stance and apologizing to Gaines on his Instagram Stories, adding three heart emojis.

MyKayla Skinner, the 2020 Olympic silver medalist in the vault, last provoked Biles’ ire with her criticism of the U.S. women’s gymnastics team ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Skinner subsequently had Gaines’ back in this match-up, saying in a June 13 statement to One America News, "As an athlete who has dedicated years to a sport, I've always believed that true competition should elevate us-not diminish others. That's why it's deeply troubling to see [Biles] publicly label a fellow female athlete a 'sore loser'—simply for expressing valid concerns about fairness in women's sports. I commend and appreciate[Gaines]for having the courage to speak up."

Gaines confirmed June 14 that she and husband Louis Barker are expecting their first child, showing off sonogram pics and regaling the crowd with commentary about her Biles feud while speaking at a Turning Point USA event.

“The funniest thing about this to me in her saying, ‘Bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a man,’” Gaines said, pointing to her baby bump. “How many men do you know that have this?”

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