The saddest thing about Simone Biles isn’t that she’s wrong about girls’ sports (although that is shocking coming from one of the best female athletes on the planet). The saddest thing about her attack on Riley Gaines is that it revealed the kind of person the three-time Olympian really is. Instead of approaching the transgender debate with the thoughtfulness and civility people expect from a star of her stature, Biles decided to publicly disrespect and berate another woman. And in that moment, millions of us realized: Simone may have represented our country, but she doesn’t represent our values.

For most people, Biles’s nasty diatribe about Gaines was almost surreal. Out of nowhere, the poster child for Team USA decided to weigh in on Riley’s post about the unfair advantage a Minnesota high school softball team had in winning the state championship. “To be expected when your star player is a boy,” the swimmer pointed out on X.

That same night, Simone unleashed a woke tirade on X, ranting at 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 category IN ALL sports!! But instead… You bully them… One things for sure is no one in sports is safe with you around!!!!!” She added later, “[B]ully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male @Riley_Gaines.”

Unfortunately for Biles, that ugly landing stuck — shocking millions of fans across the country and calling into question her future as an ambassador of U.S. sports. And no wonder. It was a classless display by a generational talent who, until Friday, was one of the most inspirational athletes ever to wear the red, white, and blue. In just 89 words, the woman who transformed gymnastics did more to cement her legacy than the 11 medals combined. Suddenly, she isn’t the gold standard that America’s daughters can look up to. She’s a certifiable mean girl who hurls hate to get her point across.

And personal insults aside, Biles’s position is just flat-out wrong. Does she really believe that women should happily step aside and let men steal their opportunities, threaten their safety, and invade their personal spaces? “I cannot for the life of me understand why Simone Biles, in the year 2025, would advocate for this,” Riley insisted on her “Gaines for Girls” podcast Monday. “What she’s done here is pull up the ladder behind her,” the swimmer argued. Frankly, Gaines tweeted back at the self-described G.O.A.T., “This is so disappointing. My take is the least controversial take on the planet,” she said, referring to the overwhelming bipartisan support for her position. “Simone Biles being a male-apologist at the expense of young girls’ dreams? Didn’t have that on my bingo card.”

Neither, it turns out, did an army of elite athletes, celebrities, and frustrated fans. By Monday night, Biles’s social media accounts had been overrun with angry pushback. “Look at Simone Biles’s comments section,” Gaines urged on Monday. “… She is getting absolutely demolished to the point where I almost feel bad for her — like I really do.”

A common theme in the backlash is that Biles has no right trashing Gaines when she herself has never had to face a man like Lia Thomas. “Easy to say this @Simone_Biles when you only had to compete against fellow women,” former ESPN commentator Sage Steele fired back. “Every one of your Olympic medals came competing against fellow women. Riley Gaines was not only forced to compete against a man, but forced to share a locker room with a man. THAT is SICK,” she emphasized. “Shocked and disappointed that you’d attack another woman who has done nothing but uplift other women. If YOU think it makes sense to create a league for trans people, go for it! Use that huge platform of yours! But to attack Riley for what she has done for little girls who want to be the next Simone Biles is……..sick.”

Not to mention, as Gaines herself pointed out, “You look at men’s and women’s gymnastics — they’re not even the same sport, essentially. You have pommel horse and rings on the men’s. You don’t have that with women. You don’t have beam. … They’re totally different sports.” To Simone, she said flatly, “You know how many gold medals you’d have if your ‘inclusive’ dream came true? Zero.” 

Others were more appalled by Biles’s tone. “If your position has merit, surely you can explain why and defend it without being mean, right?” Kaeley Triller prompted. Detransitioner Chloe Cole, who has personally suffered under this radical ideology Simone is championing, couldn’t hold back her emotion. “Tearing down other women just to please men and their fetish isn’t as progressive as you think. Your backwards stereotyping and bullying isn’t only disgusting, it’s also just wrong.”

Megyn Kelly, who’s been an outspoken proponent of fairness in girls’ sports, summed up how so many of us are feeling, saying simply, “I am ashamed of Simone Biles.”

A parade of sports’ famous faces also weighed in, some more gentle than others. NASCAR’s Danica Patrick urged everyone to consider the ridiculousness of Biles’s position. “Defending men in women’s sports is the woke mind virus and/or another issue that requires therapy. Either way, it is so irrational,” she reiterated. “I truly believe common sense will prevail. But until then, I am grateful for people like Riley Gaines who are making sure no one gets away with it. Not to mention the fact that she actually lived it.”

Others, like tennis great Martina Navratilova, tried a softer approach. “Hey, Simone- we met last year at the US open. Not sure you remember,” she offered. “But anyway- I would love to talk to you about this … pretty sure there is more to it than you know at this time… Respectfully, Martina.”

Jillian Michaels suggested a debate, an idea that seemed to gain traction in the Twittersphere. “While many appreciate your opinion maybe it’s time to discuss the facts? If you are so confident have the courage to debate Riley Gaines on this topic. Litigate this honestly and with integrity. I want to provide this forum. While I agree with Riley Gaines unilaterally I am confident I can maintain a neutral stance to moderate this conversation.”

Of course, the crazy irony of Biles’s stance is that she herself was sexually abused by a man. Listen to her words during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in 2021. “I don’t want another young gymnast, or Olympic athlete, or any individual to experience the horror that I and hundreds of others have endured before, during, and continuing to this day in the wake of the Larry Nassar abuse,” Simone said, her voice emotional. “We suffered and continue to suffer because no one at FBI, USAG or the USOPC did what was necessary to protect us. We have been failed, and we deserve answers. Nassar is where he belongs, but those who enabled him deserve to be held accountable. If they are not, I am convinced that this will continue to happen to others across Olympic sports.”

After so many on her team were violated and molested, how could she possibly advocate for letting men into girls’ locker rooms and showers? Right now, girls across America are being punished for drawing a line that adults in their lives won’t. In some states, boys are literally “switching genders” to stare at girls in their private spaces while they change.

As Riley herself has explained countless times, “We weren’t forewarned we would be sharing this changing space. We knew we would be competing against [Lia] Thomas … but we didn’t know we would be changing in a locker room until we were actually [undressing] in a locker room. And again, let me repeat: this is a six-foot-four, 22-year-old male who was fully exposing male parts in our locker room where we were simultaneously undressing. So that’s what that looked like.”

One would think, The Federalist’s Jordan Boyd wrote, that “a woman who was preyed upon by a man who repeatedly took advantage of her would not oppose a movement that was built on the promise to protect other women.” But here we are, with a front row seat to the hypocrisy.

And it’s not just a betrayal of sports; it’s a betrayal of her personal witness. This is a woman who’s proclaimed, “God is the one who directs my life.” Not only are His feelings on the subject unambiguous (Genesis 1:27), but her treatment of Gaines is anything but Christ-like. If her credibility as a role model is in tatters after this exchange, her public faith walk is on life support.

“In just two tweets,” Riley lamented, “Simone Biles basically tarnished her reputation to anyone with a shred of honesty, to anyone with a moral compass, and to anyone with an inherent … desire to protect women.”

William Bock, the elite sports attorney representing the swimmer-turned-advocate and more than a dozen other female athletes in a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against the NCAA, insisted to The Washington Stand, “Riley Gaines is a courageous warrior for women’s rights and a role model for girls. In stark contrast, Simone Biles’s comments reveal a basic misunderstanding of the biology behind massive male performance advantages in sport. Even worse,” he said, “is Biles’s evident lack of concern for women’s rights. Many young girls who idolize Simone will not have the same chance that she had to excel because boys are now taking girls’ places in virtually every sport.” Her recent comments, Bock warned, “were the worst stumble of Biles’s career on the most important issue for the future of women’s sport.”

The question isn’t whether Simone can regain her balance. The question is whether she’ll ever have enough humility and perspective to try. Until then, we stand with women for women.