Over the weekend, Olympic gymnast Simone Biles and former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines got into a nasty social-media spat over transgender athletes. On Tuesday, Biles apologized to Gaines with a more-sober statement than her previous offerings. The difference in tone is instructive. Let’s compare and contrast.

On June 6, Gaines, 25, quoted an X post highlighting the team that won the Minnesota high-school softball championship and wrote, “Comments off lol. To be expected when your star player is a boy.” The team in question apparently has a transgender pitcher. Gaines, now a conservative podcaster, has publicly opposed transgender people in sports.

Biles, 28, then lashed out at Gaines in her own tweet. “@Riley_Gaines You’re truly sick, all of this campaigning because you lost a race,” she wrote. “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!!” The “sore loser” bit apparently referred to Gaines’ once tying for fifth place with trans athlete Lia Thomas in a college swim meet, according to Teen Vogue.

Biles (pictured) quickly added a new post aimed at Gaines: “Bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male.”

Nasty.

‘Disappointing’ Post

Many of the responses to Biles were critical, especially about her “be a male” comment, which was labeled as body shaming. Others were supportive. Gaines herself replied that Biles’ post was “disappointing. It’s not my job or the job of any woman to figure out how to include men in our spaces.” Throughout the weekend, Gaines reposted tweets supporting her side.

A few days later, on June 10, Biles posted her 158-word follow-up statement and apology. “I’ve always believed competitive equity & inclusivity are both essential in sport,” she wrote. “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.”

She went on: “These are sensitive, complicated issues that I truly don’t have the answers or solutions 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 to be 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.”

Olympic Medalist

Gaines accepted the apology, adding that Biles, an 11-time Olympic medalist, is “still the greatest female gymnast of all time.” That same day, she published an opinion piece on DailyMail.com in which she addressed both the trans and body-shaming issues.

The difference in tone between Biles’ two approaches is obvious. Her first tweets really were attacks; her follow-up statement, more considered. It’s possible she wrote the latter herself, but we speculate she had professional help. Given the criticisms against her and her word choices, the situation quickly became a crisis for Biles.

We’re not fans of oversanitized statements. But the episode is a cautionary tale showing that, especially when speaking out on hot-button issues, the language used must be carefully chosen. It’s about making your position clear, as Biles did with her apology. It’s also about your reputation.

Photo Credit: A.RICARDO/Shutterstock.com

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