You will no longer read messages from Simone Biles on X. She deleted that account after being factually refuted and loudly shouted down by Riley Gaines and throngs of X users for her terrible takes on transgender athletes.
However, that doesn’t mean she’s gone completely silent on social media.
Biles still maintains her Instagram account, which has well over 12 million followers, and on Monday, she posted a cryptic “madness” message to her remaining fans.
“Strength is what we gain from the madness we survive,” Biles wrote.
Earlier this month, Biles courted and embraced disaster after challenging former NCAA swimmer and pro-women’s sports advocate Riley Gaines on an issue in which her lack of knowledge quickly proved evident.
Marissa Rothenberger, a male identifying as female and allowed to compete against females, pitched a shutout to clinch a state championship for Champlin Park High School.
The high school posted a picture of the “winning” team on X, but turned off the comments on the post.
This led Gaines to quip, “To be expected when your star player is a boy.”
Then, Biles, who had previously not said much of anything on the subject of trans athletes, inexplicably attacked Gaines.
“All of this campaigning because you lost a race. Straight up sore loser,” Biles wrote. “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!!!!!”
Gaines and her followers proceeded to instruct Biles in the inherent advantages men have over women in sports. X users lambasted the former Olympian, criticizing her for her comments.
That led to Biles backpedaling and apologizing to Gaines.
“I wanted to follow up from my last tweets,” Biles wrote. “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.”
On Sunday evening, Gaines noted that Biles had deleted her X account.
Gaines wrote, “-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.”
Biles did not specifically say which “madness” she was referring to, but one can make reasonable assumptions about it.
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