Olympic gymnastics champion Simone Biles issued a public statement Tuesday walking back her previous comments regarding trans-identifying athletes in women’s sports following a contentious social media dispute with former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines.
The 11-time Olympic medalist published her remarks on X, acknowledging that current policies fail to properly address competing concerns around fairness and inclusion in athletic competition.
Biles directly apologized to Gaines for making their disagreement personal during their public exchange last week.
“I wanted to follow up from my last tweets. I’ve always believed competitive equity & inclusivity are both essential in sport,” the 28-year-old gymnast stated.
“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.”
The confrontation began when Gaines, who has become a prominent political activist since ending her swimming career, responded to news about a Minnesota high school softball team winning a state championship with a biological male pitcher on their roster.
Gaines wrote on social media that the victory was “to be expected when your star player is a boy.”
The former swimmer’s comment prompted a sharp response from Biles,