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Just over a year ago, Simone Biles came at Riley Gaines.
In now-infamous X posts, Biles called out Gaines for speaking up about a transgender pitcher who won a Minnesota girls’ softball championship, and mocked Gaines’ body saying “bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male.” It ignited the biggest pop culture flashpoint in the “Save Women’s Sports” movement.
Now just over a year later, Gaines has a close ally in Biles’ former US Olympic gymnastics team teammate, MyKayla Skinner. Gaines and Skinner celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold state laws that protect women’s sports on Tuesday, and sent a message to Biles one year after the infamous social media feud.
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“Just being able to try to find my voice and how I could use my voice after Simone had come out against Riley, it had really affected me,” Skinner said. “I have a little daughter, and we are hoping to put her in sports soon, and I just really want her to have everything that I got to have, all the opportunities.”
Skinner, who won an Olympic silver medal in vault at the Tokyo Games, said her own athletic career shaped her view of the issue.
“I’ve broken records, I’ve been an Olympian, I was a college athlete, and I want her to have the opportunities that I had,” Skinner said of her daughter. “And so this, for me, was a way that I felt like this is the time for me to come up and stand for what I believe in, stand with Riley, and to join in on this fight.”
Skinner then turned her attention directly to Biles.
“I think it would just be really cool to see Simone stand with us,” Skinner said. “She’s one of the best athletes in the world.”
Skinner said she wants to see more elite female athletes join Gaines, XX-XY Athletics founder Jennifer Sey and others in the movement.
“To be able to see her as my teammate, as an Olympian, as an amazing athlete that she is, to be able to stand with us and fight alongside Riley and everyone else on this road,” Skinner said. “I would just love, love to see my teams, especially Simone, in step with us.”
Gaines, a former University of Kentucky swimmer who became one of the most prominent advocates against transgender athletes in women’s sports after tying transgender swimmer Lia Thomas at the 2022 NCAA championships, previously called on Biles to stand with her on the issue in a March interview with Fox News Digital, months before Biles’ social media attack.
Gaines renewed her call to Biles, alongside Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham, to stand on her side, after Tuesday’s SCOTUS ruling.
“Let this be a clarion call, not just to Simone, but to every, I think especially elite female athlete, professional female athlete, the likes of Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham, Serena Williams, to link arms,” Gaines said.
Gaines added that the ruling made her feel “absolutely vindicated.”
“I feel, of course, excited, I feel optimistic about the future,” Gaines said. “But I think the feeling that I feel the most of is vindicated.
“Being a mom, I look at her and I think of the country and the world that I want her to inherit,” Gaines said of her daughter. “It’s a more fair, more safe, more prosperous, more opportunistic world, country.”
“Let it be known that you also think young girls are worthy of calling themselves champions one day,” Gaines added.
Biles’ feud with Gaines began June 6, 2025, after Gaines drew attention to a biologically male transgender softball pitcher who helped a Minnesota girls’ team win a state championship. Biles called Gaines “truly sick,” a “straight up sore loser” and a “bully,” and later suggested Gaines was the “same size” as a male, according to Fox News Digital. Biles later deleted the posts and apologized.
The feud also became a turning point for Skinner.
Skinner had already endured her own public clash with Biles after she posted a video about the 2024 U.S. Olympic women’s gymnastics team and made comments about the team’s “talent and depth.” Biles responded at the time with the post, “Not everyone needs a mic and a platform,” and Skinner later apologized while saying her remarks were misinterpreted. Skinner told Fox News Digital last year that the backlash included death threats and messages saying she “shouldn’t be a mom.”
Skinner later joined XX-XY Athletics as an ambassador in the brand’s “Gold Medal Campaign,” aligning herself with Gaines, Sey, Olympic swimmer Nancy Hogshead and other prominent activists in the “Save Women’s Sports” space.
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When asked whether she believes Biles truly meant what she said to Gaines last year, Skinner did not hesitate.
“100% yes,” Skinner said. “I’ve known Simone since I was 13 years old, and we’ve had our moments. There’s times where she has belittled me as an athlete, as a person, bullied. And so this wasn’t a shock to me when she came out against Riley.”
Skinner said she believes Biles “stands firm” in her position, but hopes that can change.
“Being at this level and being a mom, we look up to these amazing athletes,” Skinner said. “I really think that she’s not on this side with us, and I really would love to see her come forward and maybe change her mind.”
Gaines agreed that Biles’ initial comments reflected her real views, while suggesting the apology that followed felt more like public-relations cleanup.
“You could even notice the very obvious tone switch between the initial tweet or two and the very ChatGPT-coded apology,” Gaines said.
Gaines said she accepted Biles’ apology and would still be willing to “link arms” with the Olympic gymnastics legend.
“That’s kind of like water off the duck’s back to me,” Gaines said.
But Gaines said she believes the backlash Biles faced after her posts may have revealed a cultural shift on the issue.
“I think it took that for her to realize, ‘Oh dang, I think I was living in my own little bubble here,’” Gaines said. “Maybe the people I surrounded myself with think this, but majority of Americans don’t.”
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The Supreme Court’s ruling does not force every state or school to adopt bans on transgender athletes in girls’ and women’s sports. The court said the cases did not present the separate question of whether schools may allow biological males who identify as female to compete on girls’ and women’s teams.
But for Gaines and Skinner, Tuesday’s decision marked a defining legal victory — and another chance to pressure some of the biggest names in women’s sports to pick a side.
