Three weeks after sparking a war of words with anti-trans activist Riley Gaines, apologizing for her targeted remarks, and being inundated with comments about the incident since, seven-time Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles has deleted her account on X, formerly Twitter.
Biles de-activated her account, which had nearly two million followers, after she came to the defense of a transgender high school athlete that Gaines had been attacking.
But after Biles personally insulted Gaines (for which she later apologized), it opened up a flood gate of attacks which appears to have led the 28-year-old gymnast – considered the greatest of all time – to remove her account on the platform.
Biles still has her accounts on Threads (with 2.1m followers) and Instagram (12.4m followers) active.
Gaines decided to deliver a parting shot to the gymnast, claiming that Biles ‘-has an incredibly unpopular and morally indefensible take – gets rightfully ridiculed for it – issues a groveling public apology after unrelenting backlash – deletes account to pretend it never happened’.
Gaines, who made a career out of politically advocating against trans people in sports after finishing tied for fifth with a trans woman at a swim meet, concluded, ‘Sad to see such a phenom go down like this’.
Seven-time Olympic gold medal winning gymnast Simone Biles has deleted her X account
Biles ignited a war of words with anti-trans activist Riley Gaines three weeks ago. Despite apologizing for her personal attack on Gaines, Biles’ social accounts are still rife with trolls.
Gaines delivered a parting shot to Biles minutes after the Olympic legend’s account deletion
Earlier this month, Gaines attacked a Minnesota high school on social media for fielding a softball team with a trans player.
Biles snapped, lashing out at Gaines and calling her views ‘truly sick’, before getting personal and telling her to ‘bully someone your own size, which would ironically be male’.
A few days later, Biles apologized to Gaines. While Gaines accepted the apology at the time, she continued to criticize Biles for her views and opinion – all while using the abuse Biles suffered at the hands of Larry Nassar in defense of her own position.
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