Stephen A. Smith Shares His Thoughts On The Riley Gaines-Simone Biles Clash Over Transgender Athletes
Stephen A. gives his thoughts on Riley Gaines' response to the Olympian.
Stephen A. Smith shared his thoughts on Simone Biles' recent social media attack on Riley Gaines regarding transgender athletes competing in women's sports. The ESPN host expressed that he largely agreed with Gaines' stance that women's sports should be exclusive to females, but took issue with a comment she made in her response to the legendary Olympian.
Biles very randomly, and personally attacked Gaines on June 6 when she posted a response on X calling the OutKick host "truly sick" while claiming she should be "uplifting the trans community" before telling Gaines she should "bully someone your own size," which Biles wrote "would ironically be a male."
This was in response to Gaines pointing out the ridiculousness of a Minnesota high school softball team winning a state championship last week while being led by a pitcher who is a biological male.
Smith shared his reaction to the back-and-forth between Gaines and Biles during a segment of Monday's ‘Stephen A. Smith Show,' claiming that Gaines went too far when she brought convicted sex offender Larry Nassar into the discussion. He presented and quoted Gaines' post about Nassar while responding to the situation.
"Respectfully, Gaines, I was with you until that last quote. Respectfully, that's going a bit too far," Smith said. "Talking about transgender women in sports is one issue, using a guy like Larry Nassar, one of the most despicable human beings we've ever witnessed on this earth who molested and abused numerous women, numerous gymnasts, including Biles. To go that low, Gaines, you lost all credibility."
Smith failed to mention or present the post that Gaines' shared on X in which she clarified her comments and made it clear that Nassar deserves to spend the rest of his miserable life in prison.
While Smith took issue with Gaines bringing up Nassar, he went on to show support for her overarching point about trans athletes in women's sports, although he tiptoed around fully endorsing that idea.
"The points that you made to Simone Biles outside of the Larry Nassar comment, that should give us all cause to pause," Smith continued. "The reality is that it is a disservice to women in a lot of people's eyes that men transitioning to women get to compete in women's sports…"There are an abundance of women out there who have a right to feel the way that Riley Gaines feels, Simone Biles," Smith continued.
"Whether it's right for me or somebody else to say is a different argument. In the age we're living in, with Title IX in existence, with us being protective of fairness and equal rights and equal opportunity to women, to then piggyback off of that years later by allowing transgender athletes to transition from male to female to compete against women doesn't appear to be fair."
Gaines is set to join Smith on an upcoming episode of ‘The Stephen A. Smith Show' where the two will surely dive deeper into the topic and Biles' comments on the situation.