One year after Simone Biles publicly attacked Riley Gaines over the transgender athletes debate — calling her "truly sick" and a "straight up sore loser" — Gaines celebrated Tuesday's Supreme Court ruling upholding state bans on biological males competing in women's sports alongside a new and powerful ally: Biles' own former Olympic teammate, MyKayla Skinner.
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to uphold state laws protecting women's sports from transgender athlete participation, delivering what Gaines called a moment of complete vindication after years of being dismissed, mocked, and attacked for speaking out. Skinner, who won an Olympic silver medal in vault at the Tokyo Games and has known Biles since she was 13 years old, told Fox News Digital that she was driven to join the fight not by politics but by her own athletic career and by her young daughter — a girl she is hoping to put in sports soon. "I want her to have the opportunities that I had," Skinner said. "I've broken records, I've been an Olympian, I was a college athlete. And so this, for me, was a way that I felt like this is the time for me to come up and stand for what I believe in."
"I feel, of course, excited, I feel optimistic about the future. But I think the feeling that I feel the most of is vindicated." — Riley Gaines on the SCOTUS ruling
Skinner's account of her relationship with Biles is pointed. She said Biles has belittled her as an athlete and as a person throughout their careers, and that the attack on Gaines last year was not a surprise. "100% yes," she said when asked whether she believes Biles meant what she said. "I've known Simone since I was 13 years old, and we've had our moments." But both Skinner and Gaines said they hope Biles will change her position. Skinner directed a public appeal to her former teammate: "I think it would just be really cool to see Simone stand with us. She's one of the best athletes in the world." Gaines issued a broader call, urging Caitlin Clark, Sophie Cunningham, and Serena Williams to join the movement as well — arguing that elite female athletes have both the platform and the obligation to defend the spaces women's sports have created for the next generation of girls.
Gaines noted that the backlash Biles faced after her posts last June — including from fans who had previously supported her — may have already produced a quiet shift. "I think it took that for her to realize, 'Oh dang, I think I was living in my own little bubble here,'" Gaines said. "Maybe the people I surrounded myself with think this, but majority of Americans don't." Biles deleted her posts and issued an apology after the initial blowback, though she has not commented directly on Tuesday's ruling.
The Supreme Court's ruling upholds state laws banning transgender athletes from competing in girls' and women's sports but does not compel every state to adopt such bans — it affirms the constitutionality of such laws where they exist. The court explicitly noted that it was not addressing the separate question of whether schools may permit biological males who identify as female to compete on women's teams, leaving that question for future cases. Gaines characterized the ruling as a critical legal foundation, not a final resolution of the broader cultural debate.
The women who built their careers in the arena of elite competition — who sacrificed years of training, endured physical and emotional hardship, and pushed their bodies to Olympic levels — understand in their bones what is at stake when competitive fairness is abandoned. Riley Gaines and MyKayla Skinner are not asking Simone Biles to abandon her compassion. They are asking her to extend it to the girls and women who trained their whole lives for a fair shot at a podium. Tuesday's ruling says the law agrees with them. The question now is whether the culture catches up.