Give Simone Biles another gold for obliterating Riley Gaines on trans athletes | Opinion

One of my favorite innovations to the English language, and a direct result of social media, is the modern reapplication of the word “dunk.” Inspired by the thrill of watching a basketball player leap into the air and slam the ball in the hoop of a defeated defender, dunking refers to people who land a successful blow on another person’s terrible social media post.

Just like an Anthony Edwards slam, it’s a crowning moment for the dunker and humiliating for recipients forced to see their flailing bodies on highlight reels and posters the rest of their careers.

But “dunking” doesn’t begin to describe what gymnast (and Texan) Simone Biles did on Friday to Riley Gaines, the most famous 85th-place finisher in Olympic qualifier history. Biles’ response to Gaines’ bullying of a Minnesota high school girls’ softball team was the equivalent of launching a Yurchenko double pike from the bottom of a swimming pool before mounting on top of Gaines’ head.

And just as we informally renamed the Yurchenko the Biles II, we should refer to our Gold medal Olympian every time we push back on the most shameless attacks on a marginalized community.

Gaines tried to dun–, excuse me, Biles, on the aforementioned Champlin Park High School girls’ softball team, which had posted a celebratory photo of the winning squad, as winners do. Some would hope that the former swimmer would find common ground with Champlin Park. Like most of these teens, Gaines also reached her athletic peak in high school. Instead, the 25-year-old dissed a 16-year-old junior named Melissa Rothenberger, the team’s star who is under fire for the capital offense of pitching while trans.

“Comments off lol,” wrote Gaines about the team and a post from its league, which had disabled replies in likely anticipation of people like Gaines. “To be expected when your star player is a boy.”

Enter Biles: The greatest gymnast ever and, pound for pound, one of the greatest athletes America has ever produced, Biles-ing from the top rope:

“You’re truly sick, all of this campaigning because you lost a race. Straight up sore loser,” Biles told Gaines. “You should be uplifting the trans community and perhaps finding a way to make sports inclusive OR creating a new avenue where trans feel safe in sports. Maybe a transgender category IN ALL sports!!”

“But,” Biles continued, “instead… You bully them… One things [sic] for sure is no one in sports is safe with you around!!!!!”

Like fellow 2024 Olympic gold winner Lee Kiefer, who spoke to me last month about the absurdity of our country’s anti-trans crusade, Biles is secure enough in her womanhood and her athletic talents to harass people who find community and confidence through competing in the sport they love. And like Kiefer, her boldness offers at least a partial blueprint for those who want to stand up for groups in need of our support.

Biles clocked Gaines as an unserious provocateur, then treated her accordingly. She didn’t attempt a nuanced discussion about male bone density or whether estrogen could level the playing field. There are people who are legitimately trying to understand how to treat every person who wants to play fairly. You can tell who they are because they aren’t trying to excommunicate teenagers from public life. We can all learn from Biles’ example.

Gaines is not just asking questions. She’s parlayed her disgust with trans people into successfully prohibiting trans athletes from the NCAA and a lucrative media career. Gaines’ podcast partnership with OutKick, a sports blog paying its rent by stoking outrage over WNBA stars such as Brittney Griner and DiJionai Carrington — or anyone who isn’t sufficiently deferential to Caitlin Clark — earns little grace for her intentions.

After Biles reminded Gaines about the difference between first place and fifth, Gaines tried to bounce back by comparing the Olympian’s defense of trans people with her tearful congressional testimony about being molested by Larry Nassar, the physician who sexually abused at least 265 gymnasts. In Gaines’ quest to prove Biles a hypocrite, she equated the horror Biles experienced when her doctor molested her to the joy those high schoolers felt playing and winning alongside their trans teammate.

Disparaging a push for inclusivity by mocking a woman athlete’s sexual assault is, if nothing else, a perfect summation of Riley Gaines Feminism.

Gaines’ retort was shocking, but not surprising. Some might call twisting a Black athlete’s words for cheap clicks “racist,” but at OutKick, that’s called “doing your job.” Gaines also closely aligns herself with a president trying to demolish the Department of Education, which she undoubtedly knows manages Title IX investigations into sexual violence allegations on campus.

I’m grateful that, through a couple of tweets that probably took her 10 seconds to write, Biles revealed the cruelty of Gaines’s worldview.

Which doesn’t mean that Biles’ riffing was immaculate. Novelist Victoria Zeller wrote from her Bluesky account that anyone who proposes a separate sports league as an answer to trans discrimination has “not thought about this for longer than two seconds.”

Zeller, whose New York Times bestseller “One of the Boys” is about a trans high school football player, is entirely correct. Trans people shouldn’t be content with a separate but supposedly equivalent competition. In America, a separate but equal setup should sound familiar. Gender identity can’t consign anyone to lesser rights.

But as Zeller points out, Biles “hasn’t thought that hard about this, [because] it ain’t her problem.” Unlike Gaines, whose athletic limitations leave her with plenty of idle time, Biles “is focused on being the greatest gymnast in the world.” I doubt this is her last thought on the issue. And just like the experience of watching Biles vault from the gym floor, I’m thrilled about her trajectory.

This story was originally published June 7, 2025 at 4:28 PM with the headline "Give Simone Biles another gold for obliterating Riley Gaines on trans athletes | Opinion."