Simone Biles found herself smack dab in the middle of a self-inflicted firestorm over the weekend when she picked a fight on social media with Riley Gaines over the issue of boys in girls’ sports.
After Gaines posted on X about a Minnesota girls softball team that won the state championship with the help of a dominant trans pitcher, Biles weighed in by calling the former collegiate swimmer “truly sick.” The war of words escalated from there with the Olympic gymnast suggesting Gaines looks like a man.
After a prolonged silence, Biles finally reemerged on Tuesday to issue a carefully crafted “apology” – but many are wondering if the damage has already been done. On Tuesday’s show, Megyn was joined by Miranda Devine, New York Post columnist and host of Pod Force One, to discuss the feud and why Biles has tarnished her reputation and legacy.
The Feud
The drama began Friday night after Gaines retweeted a post from the Minnesota State High School League celebrating Champlin Park for being the Class AAAA softball state champs. As Megyn covered, the team included a trans pitcher who threw dozens of shutout innings as he overwhelmed the competition.
Commenting was disabled on the league’s post, which is what Gaines noted in her retweet. “Comments off lol,” Gaines noted. “To be expected when your star player is a boy.”
That apparently set Biles off. “You’re truly sick, 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,” she posted Friday night. “But instead… You bully them… One things for sure is no one in sports is safe with you around!!!!!”
And it didn’t stop there. The seven-time Olympic golf medalist then made the attack even more personal by going after Gaines’ physique. “Bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male,” she tweeted.
Social media wasted no time piling on Biles for the body shaming given that she has been outspoken about her own body images issues, and the fact that she powerfully testified about the abuse she suffered at the hands of former Team USA doctor Larry Nasser, and that she tweeted in 2017 about how she was so glad she didn’t have to compete against male gymnasts.
The ‘Apology’
After days of silence, Biles returned to X on Tuesday with a lengthy post:
“I wanted to follow up from my last tweets. I’ve always believed competitive equity & inclusivity are both essential in sport. 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. 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.”
She signed it “Xoxo Simone” with a white heart emoji, but Megyn wasn’t buying it. “I don’t believe one word of this PR drafted back tracking,” she said on X. “It doesn’t sound anything like (I mean in style) the original posts which we know were her.”
Gaines, meanwhile, graciously accepted the apology. “I accept Simone’s apology for the personal attacks including the ones where she body-shamed me,” she posted on X. “I know she knows what this feels like. She’s still the greatest female gymnast of all time.”
She then dismantled Biles’ argument about “competitive equity”:
“A couple of things. Sports ARE inclusive by nature. Anyone can and everyone SHOULD play sports. Competition, on the other hand and by definition, is exclusive. So the idea of “competitive equity” is nonsensical.
Secondly, the boys are publicly humiliating the girls. To suggest that women and girls must be silent or ignore a boy who is PUBLICLY hurting or humiliating them is wrong. You can’t have any empathy and compassion for the girls if you’re ignoring when young men are harming or abusing them. I am not ashamed to be a voice for the voiceless.
Lastly, I agree with you that the blame is on the lawmakers and leaders at the top. Precisely why I’m suing the NCAA and support candidates who vow to stand with women. That’s why I joined @realDonaldTrump at the signing of his Executive Order. I didn’t see you there or championing this effort with your platform.
Ultimately, Gaines called on Biles to stand up for women and girls. “I welcome you to the fight to support fair sports and a future for female athletes,” she concluded. “Little girls deserve the same shot to achieve that you had.”
Legacy Lost?
Devine called the situation “terribly disappointing” and believes it will tarnish Biles’ legacy. “She just managed to destroy her reputation in a couple of days with these really, I mean, vile biles,” she noted. “Now she has shown her true colors… There is no reason for her to have attacked Riley Gaines like that.”
Megyn said Biles’ position is especially disappointing when you consider what she has been through. “I interviewed her when I was at NBC. We talked about the abuse she suffered at the hand of Dr. Larry Nassar,” she recalled. “And many of us provided, appropriately, nothing but sympathy to her for her experience at the hands of a very pernicious man. But now she is totally fine with men going into women’s locker rooms and watching them undress.”
It is likely ignorance and the desire to fit in with the ‘woke’ crowd, Megyn said, that is driving Biles’ stance, but that does not excuse it. “Shame on her… You have a chance to undo it by, as the left would say, ‘educating yourself,’ but she won’t because she is on the side of the virtue signalers,” she added. “I guess, now that she is sufficiently past her prime, she wants everybody to know what a leftist, woke person she is. And she can kiss the support she used to have from the entire country goodbye.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Devine by tuning in to episode 1,090 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.