SIMONE BILES APOLOGIZES TO RILEY GAINES AFTER ONLINE ATTACK: AN ISSUE OF FAIRNESS & SAFETY, NOT HATE

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By LONN PHILLIPS SULLIVAN

@LonnPhillips

IF THESE SORT OF TOPICS BOTHER YOU, JUST IGNORE THIS PIECE 😄

While I have believed in honestly covering this issue, and have done so online or through our many live streams or interviews, I didn't feel it was my place, as someone who you expect to cover LSU sports, particularly football, to make any article or major piece pertaining to trans athletes participating in women's sports....I pride myself on attempting to keep politics away from our platform (as much as a human being can)....until now....when the issue at heart went too far:

Simone Biles, gymnastics legend & the greatest Olympic gymnast in American history with 11 gold medals, launched an unprovoked tirade against Riley Gaines, a former collegiate swimmer turned women's sports rights advocate after she was "cheated" out of a National Championship by trans swimmer Will "Lia" Thomas.

On her X post, Biles alleged Gaines was bullying and hating the trans community due to Gaines' own posts challenging the youth sports communities in Minnesota and California, where biologically born males participated, and often dominated young girls competing for championship titles.

Biles didn't just attack Riley's rhetoric, she also body shamed the former champion swimmer, saying "bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male @Riley_Gaines_," a remark that shocked many fans of Biles who immediately commented on her endless campaigns against "body shaming".

The entire spectacle caused a social media online firestorm, with everyone from JK Rowling to Piers Morgan, or even Keith Olbermann getting involved in the pile up, but the factor that shocked many, including possibly Biles herself, was the instantaneous & vicious backlash Biles received for her comments.

Not only did Biles greatly underestimate how unpopular and massively unaccepted it is for trans athletes to directly compete against women and young girls in women's sports leagues, she failed to calculate just how beloved Riley Gaines has become (with supporters of all political, racial and sexual backgrounds), and lastly, Simone Biles demonstrated she didn't understand the issue at its core.

Biologically male trans athletes competing against women should've never become such a divisive topic or line in the sand, not only for the many young girls who've lost out on championships, scholarships, awards, squad places, and all the priceless life experiences, but these decisions have also been a disservice for trans athletes themselves.

Here is one recent shocking example:

Algerian boxer Imane Khelif was disqualified from the World Boxing Championships after testing positive for male chromosomes, yet allowed to concuss and beat up women nearly half Imane's size during the 2024 Paris Olympics...all going down as a litany of voices protested the injustice, knowing Imane was a man fighting women in a boxing ring, and Olympic committees were actually allowing this to take place...

This wasn't some rogue decision by a recreational sports department in Marin County, California, these were people in the highest possible position of sporting decision-making somehow claiming "no, your eyes are deceiving you, Imane is a woman".....

Now, test results, showing Imane is indeed a biological male, recently leaked out. That decision to cover up Imane's test results didn't just rob & demoralize all the women Khelif beat to a bloody pulp to get the Olympic gold medal, it will also forever brand Khelif as, at best, a liar, and at worst, a cheater.

This is just one of a host of examples that turned the tide of public opinion against the current lack of competitive fairness & physical safety for females in sports....and that is what Biles grossly underestimated.

The Olympic superstar came out swinging when she attacked Riley Gaines, but I don't think she quite expected a backlash from so many of her own fans, many being LSU Tiger faithful, plus a long list of female athletes, as well as members of the black community, male and female, all wondering why Biles engaged in this fight in the first place.

Just days after the online weekend back and forth, Biles apologized to Gaines in a lengthy post that read:

My sincere hope is that now both Biles and Gaines will come together for the first real, open conversation about this complex, multi-layered issue and hopefully a solution can be figured out.

No one wants hate or anyone to feel excluded or marginalized, but at the same time, we cannot inflate the rights of some at the cost of others.

It's an issue of fairness, not hate or prejudice....and that fact is what Biles failed to understand.

By LONN PHILLIPS SULLIVAN

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