Gymnast Simone Biles has apologised for comments she made about former college swimmer Riley Gaines during a heated online exchange.

Seven-time Olympic-gold-medallist Biles got into a spat with Gaines last week over trans inclusion in sport.

Gaines, who tied in fifth place with trans swimmer Lia Thomas in a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) women’s championship race in 2022, has made a name for herself more recently as an anti-trans pundit and supporter of the Trump administration.

The exchange between the two kicked off after Gaines took to X/Twitter to mock a Minnesota high school baseball team for including a trans person – whom she misgendered.

@Riley_Gaines_ 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… https://t.co/pjpzuZ0AlO

— Simone Biles (@Simone_Biles) June 6, 2025

In response Biles, who is known for her support of the LGBTQ+ community, wrote: “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 [people] feel safe in sports, maybe a transgender category in all sports.

“One thing’s for sure… no one in sports is safe with you around. Bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male,” Biles added in later post, in an apparent dig at Gaines’ physique.

Gaines shot back: “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.”

Although the row could have escalated further, on Tuesday (10 June), Biles expressed regret for making the “personal” comments, writing: “I wanted to follow up from my last tweets. I’ve always believed competitive equity and 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, [for] which I apologise. These are sensitive, complicated issues that I truly don’t have the answers 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 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 organisations 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.”

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…

— Simone Biles (@Simone_Biles) June 10, 2025

Gaines accepted Biles’ apology “for the personal attacks including the ones where she body-shamed me” but doubled down on her anti-trans rhetoric.

“A couple of things,” she said. “Sports are inclusive by nature. Anyone can and everyone should play sports. Competition, on the other hand, by definition, is exclusive. So, the idea of ‘competitive equity’ is non-sensical.

“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.”

Addressing Biles more directly, Gaines added: “Women’s sports can’t be used as an excuse for girls to centre the feelings and validation of men and boys… little girls deserve the same shot you had.”

Gaines, one of 16 female student athletes to launch a legal case against the NCAA’s trans-inclusion policy last year, went on to voice support for one of president Donald Trump’s anti-trans executive orders.

The directive, Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports, took aim at trans women competing in female sports and declared that federal funding would be pulled from educational institutions that did not designate teams based on “biological sex”.

It proclaimed that the “policy of the United States [was] to oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports more broadly, as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity and truth”. In addition, under civil rights legislation Title IX, which protects people from sex-based discrimination, educational institutions which received federal funds wold not be allowed “to deny women an equal opportunity to participate in sports”.

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