Riley Gaines takes jab at Simone Biles after Olympic great deletes X account following feud
Conservative activist had war of words with U.S. Olympic icon over transgender athletes.
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Simone Biles apparently choose to walk away from social media site X, but Riley Gaines couldn’t help but get in a parting shot after the two women had engaged in an online war of words earlier this month.
The U.S. Olympic gymnastics icon appears to have shuttered her account over the weekend with the former NCAA swimmer and conservative activist taking notice.
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Riley Gaines takes jab at Simone Biles after Olympic great deletes X account following feud Back to video
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Gaines posted that it was “sad to see such a phenom go down like this.”
“Has an incredibly unpopular and morally indefensible take, gets rightfully ridiculed for it, issues a groveling public apology after unrelenting backlash, deletes account to pretend it never happened,” Gaines posted on X, along with a screenshot showing Biles’ account had been deactivated.
Biles and Gaines had been butting heads earlier this month over the ongoing debate surrounding transgender athletes women’s sports.
Their feud kicked off after Gaines made a post commenting on a transgender high school softball player helping their team win a state championship.
The State High School League posted a team photo, but disabled comments — which led Gaines to call the account out.
“To be expected when your star player is a boy,” Gaines wrote.
Biles hit back at Gaines, who famously competed against transgender University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, tying for fifth in a state championship race.
“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!!
“But instead… You bully them… One things for sure is no one in sports is safe with you around!!!!!” Biles wrote, later adding “bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male.”
Days later, Biles apologized for the insults towards Gaines.
“I wanted to follow up from my last tweets. I’ve always believed competitive equity and inclusivity are both essential in sport,” the 11-time Olympic medallist gymnast began the lengthy post. “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.
“We all want a future for sport that is fair, inclusive, and respectful.”.
Biles has yet to publicly comment on her reason for deleting her X account.
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