Riley Gaines recently reacted to Simone Biles being named Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year. Biles, aged 27, had an extraordinary 2024 season, winning four Olympic medals, including three golds. Gaines, a 24-year-old social activist and former swimmer, expressed her admiration for Biles on X (formerly Twitter) by sharing a goat emoji, signaling that she considers Biles the “Greatest of All Time.”
In a follow-up post, Gaines stated:
“There’s no other gymnast even close to Simone’s level & they likely won’t be for a long, long time. Some of her skills don’t seem humanly possible. Idc about her politics, she’s goated.”
Biles was also a contender for the Associated Press’s ‘Female Athlete of the Year’ award in December 2024 but lost to WNBA star Caitlin Clark. Clark received 35 votes, while Biles garnered 25 votes.
Earlier, Gaines had praised Olympic champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone for her stellar performances, particularly comparing her to another nominee, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif. McLaughlin-Levrone secured two gold medals at the Paris Olympics, winning the women’s 400m hurdles and the women’s 4x400m relay.
Gaines has been vocal about her views on Khelif’s nomination for the AP award, highlighting controversy over Khelif’s gender identity. On her X account, Gaines wrote:
“The absurd part is @AP knows he is a man (just as anyone with eyes does), but they just don’t care. His medical records showing his chromosomes & anatomy are public. 4 dunces just genuinely believe a man makes the best woman. Why have a woman’s award if a man can win it?”
In another post, Gaines contrasted Khelif’s achievements with McLaughlin-Levrone’s, stating:
“His achievements are comparable to other athletes who weren’t nominated even once, like Sydney McLaughlin [Levrone], who broke her own world record at the Games for the fifth time after a long injury break. And so the message I got was that he [Khelif] was nominated because he was male and they want to punish women.”
Gaines has consistently spoken out about transgender participation in women’s sports. She previously criticized the NCAA for allowing Blaire Fleming, reportedly a transgender athlete, to compete in the NCAA Mountain West Conference League. Gaines has raised concerns about preserving fairness and safety in women’s sports, calling for more action from gov
erning bodies.