Riley Gaines didn’t miss an opportunity to take yet another jab at Simone Biles while announcing her first pregnancy.
The former collegiate swimmer turned right-wing activist confirmed she and husband Louis Barker are expecting their first child as part of a speech she delivered at a Turning Point USA event held on Saturday. In it, she alluded to her recent online clash with Biles, who had called her out over her stance on transgender athletes.
“I think the funniest thing about this to me, and her saying, ‘Bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a man’ … How many men do you know that have this?” Gaines told the crowd, while clutching her stomach and holding up a series of sonogram images.
On Sunday, Gaines acknowledged Father’s Day on Instagram with a photo of her and Barker. That same day, she also confirmed that she and her husband are expecting a daughter.
“There’s something so special and providential about having a little girl,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “She’s everything I’ve been fighting for & the little girl we’ve prayed over for years praise God!”
Biles and Gaines first sparred online earlier this month, after Gaines took aim at a Minnesota high school softball team whose roster includes a transgender girl on X.
“To be expected when your star player is a boy,” Gaines wrote in response to the team’s announcement of a championship win.
Biles quickly came to the trans athlete’s defense, telling Gaines to “bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male” on X.
In a follow-up tweet, the Olympic gymnast went on to blast Gaines as a “sore loser,” referring to Gaines tying for fifth place in a 2022 NCAA Division I national championship race against swimmer Lia Thomas — the first openly trans woman to win such a national title.
“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,” she wrote. “But instead… You bully them… One things for sure is no one in sports is safe with you around!!!!!”
Gaines fired back at Biles, writing: “It’s not my job or the job of any woman to figure out how to include men in our spaces. You can uplift men stealing championships in women’s sports with YOUR platform.”
“Men don’t belong in women’s sports and I say that with my full chest,” she added.
A few days later, Biles apologized to Gaines for getting personal.
“I was not advocating for policies that compromise fairness in women’s sports. My objection is to be singling out children for public scrutiny in ways that feel personal and harmful,” she wrote on X. “Individual athletes—especially kids—should never be the focus of criticism of a flawed system they have no control over.”
Later that day, Gaines said she’d accepted Biles’ apology, but went on to baselessly argue that trans athletes are “harming” and “abusing” girls.
“To suggest that women and girls must be silent or ignore a boy who is PUBLICLY hurting or humiliating them is wrong,” she wrote on X.
Gaines was among those who appeared at the White House in February to witness President Donald Trump sign an executive order prohibiting “male competitive participation in women’s sports.” The order establishes the right to “rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities.”
Earlier this month, the Trump administration pledged to go after California after a 16-year-old transgender athlete, AB Hernandez, won first place in the girls’ high jump and triple jump at the State Track and Field Championships. Hernandez has been the focus of a series of protests in recent months simply for competing.
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