Riley Gaines 'feels bad' as Simone Biles faces backlash amid feud over trans inclusion in women sports

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: The latest bend in the ongoing feud between Riley Gaines and Simone Biles appears to be a note of pity.

On OutKick, Gaines admitted she actually “almost feel[s] bad for her” after watching the gymnast’s comments section blow up with criticism. 

The former NCAA star said she’d braced herself for haters the moment a notification popped up, but then she realized it was Biles who bore the brunt of it instead, Fox News reported.

"I was prepared when I got that notification, Clay (Travis), on my phone for that onslaught of hatred to come towards me," Gaines told host Clay Travis.

"Look at Simone Biles' comments section… She is getting absolutely demolished to the point where I almost feel bad for her, like I really do. I have read these comments, I'm like, 'Oh my gosh!'"

How the Riley Gaines-Simone Biles feud began

It all started Friday when Gaines — who famously raced Lia Thomas and now crusades against trans inclusion in women’s sports — dropped a pointed remark under a Minnesota high-school softball pic. Biles thought the comment was transphobic.

“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 fumed. “But instead… You bully them… One thing’s for sure is no one in sports is safe with you around!!!!!” 

“Bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male," she later added.

Gaines, 25, clapped 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," she wrote.

Silence from Simone Biles as Riley Gaines brings receipts

Gaines wasn’t finished. She invoked Biles’ brave testimony against convicted predator Larry Nassar. “All the horrific s–ual abuse @Simone_Biles witnessed and spoke out against caused by one man, yet [she] believes women should be forced to strip naked in front of men to validate the man’s feelings," Gaines posted.

Then she dug up an old 2017 tweet in which Biles quipped, “Ahhhh good thing guys don’t compete against girls or he’d take all the gold medals !!”

Gaines sarcastically commented, “Oop don’t you hate it when your past self completely undermines your current nonsensical argument? How has 2025 Simone reconciled with the fact 2017 Simone was a ‘truly sick bully’ by her own standard?”

The 28-year-old gymnast has since gone radio-silent.

Riley Gaines reflects on feud as Danica Patrick joins in

Gaines said their weekend exchange "was the number one trending thing on Twitter for, I mean, two days straight. Even on TikTok - every TikTok video that pops up on my For You page is someone coming for Simone Biles for coming for me and for my body."

NASCAR icon Danica Patrick chimed in, planting her flag firmly in Riley’s camp and saying she’d been “red pilled.”

“This issue has a shelf life. I truly believe common sense will prevail,” Patrick, 43, wrote on Instagram. “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.”

She added, “Defending men in women’s sports is the woke mind virus and/or another issue that requires therapy. Either way, it is so irrational.”

Gaines made quite the career pivot after retiring from competitive swimming. The conservative commentator now hosts 'Gaines for Girls' on OutKick, often pops up on Fox, and earlier this year earned a White House invite from President Donald Trump as he signed the “Keeping Men out of Women’s Sports” executive order in February.

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