Simone Biles attacks Riley Gaines

[ItsCoolForCats]

Simone Biles has come out in defence of males in women's sports, and has attacked Riley Gaines for fighting against it. She said on Twitter:

"@RileyGaines
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!!!!!"

So, so disappointing. Both my daughters do gymnastics and are huge SB fans, so it is awful for her to show such contempt towards RG, who is fighting for a level playing field for women and girls in sport. And to suggest a separate category as if nobody has ever thought of that and tried it 🤦🏻‍♀️

My post related only to Gaines’ comment. Of course Biles’ original comment was out of line. However, the more Gaines takes digs at her - particularly ones like these - I feel she does lose the upper hand.

Why do you think their medal tally is of any relevance to the arguments they've made here or how they've conducted themselves?

If your assessment refers only to Riley's comment, it's pointless. The entire reason Riley has the upper hand is because of Simone's original attack. Trying to consider Riley's comment in isolation is a complete waste of time.

There will come a point where, if Riley is still going on about it, she'll lose the upper hand. Less than 24 hours after Simone's apology is not it.

Just for full context, this is during an interview on Fox News. RG has not posted this on her X account.

Just for clarity.

The excerpt above from Riley Gaines is from a TV interview.

https://x.com/highbrow_nobrow/status/1932839462058213844?s=46

This is the tweet accepting Simone Biles’ apology for context. I believe it was linked to up thread.

x.com/riley_gaines_/status/1932493510868906128?s=46

“I accept Simone's apology for the personal attacks including the ones where she body-shamed me. I know she knows what this feels like. She's still the greatest female gymnast of all time.

A couple of things. Sports ARE inclusive by nature. Anyone can and everyone SHOULD play sports. Competition, on the other hand and by definition, is exclusive. So the idea of "competitive equity" is nonsensical.

Secondly, the boys are publicly humiliating the girls. To suggest that women and girls must be silent or ignore a boy who is PUBLICLY hurting or humiliating them is wrong. You can't have any empathy and compassion for the girls if you're ignoring when young men are harming or abusing them. I am not ashamed to be a voice for the voiceless.

Lastly, I agree with you that the blame is on the lawmakers and leaders at the top. Precisely why I'm suing the NCAA and support candidates who vow to stand with women. That's why I joined @realDonaldTrump at the signing of his Executive Order. I didn't see you there or championing this effort with your platform.

Women's sports can't be used as an excuse for girl's to center the feelings and validation of men and boys.

I welcome you to the fight to support fair sports and a future for female athletes. Little girls deserve the same shot to achieve that you had.”

Why shouldn’t Riley Gaines give an answer in a TV interview when asked a question about this incident. Do people, such as the person who tweeted the snippet in their own commentary analysing Gaines’ reaction, really expect that she should have deflected and not made an observation about the incident?

Why shouldn’t she be making an observation about what motivated and shaped the apology?

I found this account using the quote and saying similar about Biles’ medal tally.

https://x.com/highbrow_nobrow/status/1932873514744250644?s=46

“Context: Simone Biles is the most decorated gymnast in history, with 11 Olympic medals and 30 World Championship medals—including a record 23 World golds and multiple all-around titles.

Riley Gaines, despite an impressive collegiate swimming career, has zero Olympic medals and is best known for tying for fifth place with swimmer Lia Thomas in the 200-yard freestyle at the 2022 NCAA Championships, a result she publicly protested because Thomas identifies as transgender.”

I don’t understand why someone would think that this is relevant. And yet…. Apparently Riley Gaines should be considered to be in the wrong in making an observation about the apology.

I believe also that this tweet is also using performance to shame Riley for even starting to campaign for protecting women’s sports.

This tweet proposes:

Simone Biles : outstanding and exceptional athlete - therefore no negative observations should be made.

Riley Gaines : didn’t win and is a bigot protesting against someone who is transgender. (Rather than protesting that a male person should never have been included in the race)

I can only assume that Olympic Golf medallists are the only people’s voices who should be considered valid in this discussion. Anyone else should be shamed for their poor performance and their bigotry.

I wonder if it works the other way too, like is Riley automatically more qualified to speak on the subject than a TRA who's never been good enough to win any collegiate medals or be invited to an Olympic Trials?

Then why did Gaines feel the need to say “You have this famous public figure now issuing a groveling public apology and backtracks after tweeting pro-trans propaganda, if you will”?

That seems an overt point about status.

The point is that this exceptional athlete is trying to appease the group who believe that male people should have access to female single sex provisions.

The point that Riley is making is that even Simone’s status didn’t protect her from extreme transactivist tactics and that the public may actually take notice of that. All for making a statement that Simone supposed supported transgender inclusion in sport (and they should be included, just in then correct category for their sex). And had presumably now discovered that it didn’t support what those actvists want at all.

That's got nothing to do with your apparent belief that Simone's medals gives her some kind of moral upper hand over Riley.

Because other people had already tried to make it about status. That context exists regardless of whether Riley wants it to or not.

Riley is constantly called a loser by those who don't want to hear what she has to say, as though it matters whether she finished 1st, 5th or last. Some people who approved of Simone's initial attack cited her achievements as a point in her favour, as something to bolster her.

And lastly, Simone's status as one of the world's greatest sportswomen is why this exploded in the first place. It wouldn't have happened if the same words had been said by someone with 48 followers and their 25 metres certificate. There is also the question in the background of how much Riley's objectively lesser status was a relevant factor in Simone starting this in the first place, of course.

The Fox TV interview, where she says Biles “grovelled”, comes after Simone Biles’ apology, and after this excerpt above. So Simone has apologised, but Riley Gaines is still tweeting and giving interviews.

Where did I write that? Please point to it.

Yes, exactly.

Riley Gaines is a campaigner for protecting women’s sports. She gives interviews frequently. Why should she be turning down interview opportunities now? Her campaigning was never reliant on Simone Biles’ at all.

Fox News interviewed her and they asked her a question. She answered it.

Of course she is going to be asked questions about the incident. The public are aware of it and Fox News wanted to capitalise on it.

Please link up Riley’s tweets after she publicly accepted Simone’s apology. I have looked and I cannot see the tweets that you are referring to.

And the grovelling refers to Simone attempting to appease extreme trans activists, I believe.

@Helleofabore people love to cite GC campaigners appearing on right wing media outlets as some sort of criticism that undermines their entire credibility. But of course as we’ve seen in the UK with people like Helen Joyce and GB News, it is often the case that these are the only outlets which will give them regular airtime.

The absurd length of time it took Woman’s Hour to grant HJ her one and only slot is a prime example.

This is true.

And it seems that there are some
people who think that Riley Gaines shouldn’t be giving her insights on why the incident happened, why other people responded as they did and what the ramifications of the incident is. That she as being the recipient of the attack and having processed it and seen the interactions she just have shut the fuck up after Simone apologised.

Because, of course, that would be Riley being nice to Simone. After Simone so kindly apologised to her for her attack and for effectively positioning Riley as a bigot and worthy of such demeaning and demonisation.

It is quite enlightening, isn’t it?

Well knock me down with a feather, a pro women's sports activist is taking up an opportunity to go on national tv to get publicity for her cause, and you wonder why she would do that?!!!

Yes, and? She answered one question in one interview that wasn't about it.

And the problem is?

Because Riley should SHUT THE FUCK UP! of course. She shouldn’t be out there campaigning for protecting female sports categories because she is not the right sort of spokesperson for the cause.

That is what I am reading

The most telling part of Biles’ initial tweet for me was her suggestion that Riley Gaines should be focusing on finding solutions for Trans people in sports. Why on earth a female athlete should be devoting any time whatsoever to finding solutions purely relevant to biological male athletes is really beyond me.

And then they misrepresented her in a future episode and didn’t provide a proper correction.

You said this ...

And her statement above reflects that - ‘I got an athlete much better than me to apologise - to me’

That was entirely your reading. You brought their relative status as athletes into it. Why?

So 'be kind' now extends not only to an expectation that women should take personal abuse with a simpering smile but should keep up that simpering smile in the face of a non apology from the person who abused them.

Parsing the original message:

Gaines: I accept her apology and see this as a really big win. (The apology to ME)

You have this famous public figure (Bigger than myself, not explicitly referring to medals or sporting prowess)

now issuing a groveling public apology and backtracks after tweeting pro-trans propaganda, if you will.” (Grovelling to ME)

I didn’t bring their status into it. Gaines did.