Riley Gaines Tells Clay Travis: Simone Biles Is Getting Dragged So Hard Online, 'I Almost Feel Bad for Her'

When Simone Biles fired off a tweet calling Riley Gaines a "sore loser" and suggesting she "bully someone your own size," most people assumed Gaines would get hit with the usual wave of online hate. But that's not what happened.

In a Monday appearance on The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show, Gaines said she was stunned — not just by Biles' insult, but by the response that followed.

"I was prepared when I got that notification, Clay, on my phone for that onslaught of hatred to come towards me," Gaines said, before pointing out that it was actually Biles who received that onslaught. 

"Look at Simone Biles' comments section… She is getting absolutely demolished to the point where I almost feel bad for her, like I really do. I have read these comments, I'm like, ‘oh my gosh!’"

According to Gaines, the backlash against Biles for body-shaming Riley in defense of transgender athletes was overwhelming, especially on social media platforms.

"It was the number one trending thing on Twitter for, I mean, two days straight," she said. "Even on TikTok — every TikTok video that pops up on my ‘For You’ page is someone coming for Simone Biles for coming for me and for my body."

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And it wasn’t just random users joining the pile-on. Gaines said athletes, including current and former Olympians, have reached out to her privately, offering their support and expressing disbelief at Biles' attack.

One possible reason for the outrage? Biles is the most decorated gymnast of all time. Gymnastics is a sport where the differences in female and male bodies are especially obvious. So obvious, in fact, that men and women don't even compete in the same events.

"You look at men's and women's gymnastics — they're not even the same sport, essentially," Gaines said. "You have pommel horse and rings on the men's. You don't have that with women. You don't have beam. Men don't compete on beam, right? They're totally different sports."

Simone Biles attacked Riley Gaines over men in women's sports.

(Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images)

Even Clay Travis, whose wife Lara was a talented gymnast in college, jumped in to highlight the biological reality that makes this issue especially glaring in Biles' own domain.

"Most women can't even do a lot of the things that the men do," Clay said. "That's not an attack on women's gymnastics. It's just that for people who don't do those things — men would be able to do, for instance, the floor routine, or the vault, or all these things, the ring, the uneven bars — better than women do them because they're bigger, stronger, and faster."

In other words, if anyone should understand the importance of sex-based sports categories, it's elite gymnast Simone Biles.

Public Response To Simone Biles & Riley Gaines Exchange Is Proof The Attitude Is Shifting

As more and more cases surface of males dominating in girls' and women's sports, Gaines explained, proponents of radical gender ideology are quickly losing grip of the narrative.

"That's the classic progression," she said. "It never really happened — that was step one. Then it slowly shifts to, 'OK, well, it is happening, but it's not happening a lot, therefore we shouldn't be concerned.' Then it progresses to, 'OK, well, it's happening, and here's why it's a good thing.' And then the final stage of it is, 'it's happening, it's a good thing, and you're going to accept it — or else.'"

Gaines pointed out that in at least five different states last week, male athletes competed for (and won) state titles in high school girls' sports.

"Minnesota, California, Washington, Oregon and Maine, where boys stole state qualifying spots, state championships or podium spots from deserving, hard-working girls," Gaines said. "So the whole 'it doesn't really happen' argument, it can't stand at all when it continues to happen."

Simone Biles faced intense online backlash after attacking Riley Gaines on social media.

(Getty Images)

Last week, OutKick reported on a trans-identifying male pitcher in Minnesota who pitched 21-straight innings in the state tournament to lead Champlin Park High School to a championship. It was Gaines' response to that incident that sparked Biles' attack in the first place. 

So it's unclear why Biles decided to jump into the argument now. But what is clear is that the gymnast's attempt to grandstand backfired in a big way. Gaines, who has been called every name in the book since speaking out about sex-based sports categories, is still trying to make sense of Biles' sudden hostility.

"This is a woman I publicly called on… to stand with the movement of protecting women and girls in sports," she said. "So for her to say this now, I just can't, for the life of me, understand why she would do this.

"She has shown her true colors here, I believe."