Olympic icon Simone Biles has found herself in the middle of a transgender row after she labelled a US swimmer as 'sick'.
American great Biles is widely regarded as one of the top athletes of all time, boasting an impressive haul of 11 Olympic medals and 30 World Championship medals.
She won two golds in the 2024 Paris Olympics in the all-around and the vault, to take her overall tally to seven Olympic golds. Her achievements means she is now the most successful American gymnast of all time.
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But she has recently found herself involved in a transgender row on X with the conservative American political activist and former swimmer Riley Gaines.
Before her retirement, Gaines swam for the University of Kentucky's NCAA team.
In March 2022 at competition, she finished joint fifth with Lia Thomas, who later became the first openly trans woman to win an event in the NCAA women's division.
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A year later, Gaines made headlines when she spoke out against Thomas.
She said: "We did not give our consent, they did not ask for our consent, but in that locker room, we turn around and there's a 6'4" biological man dropping his pants and watching us undress, and we're exposed to male genitalia.
"Not even probably a year, two years ago, this would have been considered some form of sexual assault, voyeurism.
"But now not even are they just allowing it to happen, it’s almost as if these large organizations are encouraging it to happen."
Simone Biles and Riley Gaines feud explained
The online spat was sparked by Gaines' reply to an X post by Minnesota State High School celebrating victory in a softball competition. The school's Chaplin Park girls' team were pictured celebrating the State Championship, with the team including a transgender woman player.
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Gaines wrote: "Comments off lol. To be expected when your star player is a boy."
Biles hit back at Gaines' post saying: "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…
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"One things for sure is no one in sports is safe with you around!!!!!"
How have other people reacted?
On Sky News, the comedian Alex Stein was critical of Biles.
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He said: "Simone Biles wants to continue to do this as some sort of weird virtue signal because she’s probably told to by her Hollywood agent and her NFL husband.
“Anything she says, you can take it with a grain of salt.
“Instead of being a champion for other victims, like herself, she wants to go and attack Riley Gaines.
“She should be lifting women up instead of putting them down to help transgenders in women’s sports.
“It’s absolutely ludicrous.”
Topics: Olympics, Simone Biles
James Taylor