A recent social media clash between Olympic gymnast Simone Biles and women’s sports advocate Riley Gaines erupted a firestorm of backlash, primarily against Biles.
Wow. @Simone_Biles is a giant piece of trash.
She thinks boys should play in girls sports and calls out @Riley_Gaines_ for defending girls. pic.twitter.com/NGf6wsPtMn
— AmericanPapaBear (@AmericaPapaBear) June 7, 2025
Gaines began speaking out against allowing biological males to compete on teams meant for girls and women after she was forced to share a locker room with a male competitor who identified as transgender.
Amid the mounting criticism of her personal attacks on Gaines, Biles has apparently taken down her X account entirely, based on multiple screenshots showing that the profile was no longer visible.
Among those who commented was Gaines, as reported by Outkick:
The mounting PR headache culminated in Biles deactivating her X account, seemingly to escape the negative press.
Riley Gaines reacted to Biles’ departure from X, expressing disappointment.
“[Simone] 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. Sad to see such a phenom go down like this,” Gaines said.
OutKick founder Clay Travis also weighed in, criticizing Biles’ team.
“It appears @simone_biles has deleted her Twitter account after she attacked @Riley_Gaines, defended men in women’s sports, and issued a strangely worded apology written by her moronic PR team.”
Here’s are a few other reactions to the development:
BREAKING 🚨 After getting embarrassed by Riley Gaines, Simone Biles has shut down her 𝕏 account
GOOD RIDDANCE pic.twitter.com/OW4ukYMuPn
— MAGA Voice (@MAGAVoice) June 23, 2025
In light of Simone Biles nuking her account, this ones for you @Riley_Gaines_ pic.twitter.com/mqdLxTqvPY
— Gizmo Memes (@Gizmo_Memes) June 23, 2025
Simone Biles x account is gone. That statement against Riley Gaines didn’t go as planned. Oopse. pic.twitter.com/Bz8KzExTjN
— Sarah Sansoni (@sarahsansoni) June 23, 2025
The Daily Mail also reported on Biles’ abruptly deleted account:
Three weeks after sparking a war of words with anti-trans activist Riley Gaines, apologizing for her targeted remarks, and being inundated with comments about the incident since, seven-time Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles has deleted her account on X, formerly Twitter.
Biles de-activated her account, which had nearly two million followers, after she came to the defense of a transgender high school athlete that Gaines had been attacking.
But after Biles personally insulted Gaines (for which she later apologized), it opened up a flood gate of attacks which appears to have led the 28-year-old gymnast – considered the greatest of all time – to remove her account on the platform.
Biles still has her accounts on Threads (with 2.1m followers) and Instagram (12.4m followers) active.
Here’s a recent clip in which Gaines used her pregnancy to deliver a shot at Biles:
Amazing! @Riley_Gaines_ just announced she’s pregnant on stage at a @TPUSA event, reminding Simone Biles only women can get pregnant.
Congrats to Riley!🤰🏼pic.twitter.com/3YxleP25y2
— Christine Yeargin (@christineyeargs) June 14, 2025
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