After publishing a series of personal attacks aimed at swimmer and activist Riley Gaines over her opposition to biological males competing in girls’ and women’s sports, Olympic gymnast Simone Biles received an onslaught of public criticism.
A few days later, she issued a lackluster statement that could broadly be characterized as an apology.
But the gesture fell flat, with thousands of social media users describing the move as a public relations stunt.
The Daily Caller reported on her statement:
After Gaines threw criticism at a situation going on in Minnesota involving a softball team led by a transgender athlete that won the state championship, Biles hopped on social media herself to blast Gaines as “truly sick” and demanded her to “bully someone your own size, which would ironically be male.”
ADVERTISEMENTFast forward a few days later, and Biles is now apologizing to Gaines for her attack. And not just, but she’s also backtracking from her support of transgenders in female sports.
“I wanted to follow up from my last tweets. I’ve always believed competitive equity and inclusivity are both essential in sport,” tweeted Biles. “The current system doesn’t adequately balance these important principles, which often leads to frustration and heated exchanges, and it didn’t help for me to get personal with Riley, which I apologize for.”
Gaines was among those who pointed out that Biles seemed to have a different stance on the issue a few years ago:
Oop don’t you hate it when your past self completely undermines your current nonsensical argument?
How has 2025 Simone reconciled with the fact 2017 Simone was a ‘truly sick bully’ by her own standard? https://t.co/aQjKuNSmMh
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) June 8, 2025
The seemingly half-hearted mea culpa also fueled a trending phrase — “Your PR” — on X:
When your PR rep gets involved because you are wrong… https://t.co/1hgGgzGBzD
— Brown Town (@21browntown) June 10, 2025
3 days. It took you 3 days to get your PR firm to generate a worthless ChatGPT “apology” that contains no apology
You are a hypocrite, a coward, and deserve nothing but scorn https://t.co/VL3QKnIfez pic.twitter.com/aRf0mdGgsd— Corporal Punishment (@CplPunishment_) June 10, 2025
This is what million dollar crisis PR firms get you.
Water down apologies that not a single person believes.
Too little, too late. Sorry @Simone_Biles you flat out ruined your entire career https://t.co/eM0JLiIOWf
— Kelsi Sheren (@KelsiBurns) June 10, 2025
Outkick also reported on the controversy:
However, the backlash is now coming at Biles for taking four days to issue her response, which some believe reads a bit suspect.
“The people you upset originally see through your PR team, AI created, half-arsed apology. Nobody believes it, and it was clear that you don’t believe what you were originally saying either,” one person tweeted before also adding that “the people who cheered you on now think you’re a massive bigot.” Welcome to 2025, everyone!
“When you have to hire a PR team to write your tweets, you’ve lost!” another wrote.
“Took your PR team long enough to come up with this.”
ADVERTISEMENT“Your PR tweet ain’t gon’ cut it” reads another one among the countless others.
Here’s some additional coverage of the story:
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport.
View the original article here.
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