Simone Biles-Riley Gaines feud sparks Stephen A Smith reaction

ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith largely agreed with Riley Gaines amid the former NCAA All-American swimmer’s feud with Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles.

Smith’s remarks on Monday came a few days after Biles launched into a personal attack on Gaines after the former Kentucky Wildcats star criticized a Minnesota softball league for turning off comments on a photo showing a state championship team that had a transgender player on its roster.

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Stephen A. Smith on the ESPN “NBA Countdown” live set at Intuit Dome on Oct. 23, 2024. (Kirby Lee-Imagn Images)

Gaines used Larry Nassar, the disgraced former doctor who sexually assaulted several Olympic gymnasts, to further her point about men being in women’s spaces. While Smith did not agree with Gaines using Nassar, he did agree with the original premise.

“With that being said, the points you made to Simone Biles outside of the Larry Nassar comment, that should give us all cause for pause,” he said on “The Stephen A. Smith Show.” “The reality is that it is a disservice to women in a lot of people’s eyes, that men transitioning to women get to compete in women’s sports. Lia Thomas was a perfect example. Her highest ranking at the time … highest ranking as a male participant was like 554th in the world. He transitioned into being a woman and was top 10. That speaks for itself.

“And the reality is there’s an abundance of women out there who have a right to feel the way Riley Gaines feels, Simone Biles. Now whether it’s right for me or someone else to say it is a different argument. But in the age that we’re living in with Title IX in existence, with us being protective of fairness and equal rights and equal opportunity to women to then piggyback off of that and following up on that years later to allow transgender athletes transitioning from male to female to compete against women doesn’t appear to be fair.”

Smith dismissed any notion that the debate over transgender athletes in girls’ and women’s sports was more than just on-field competition.

Simone Biles, right, and Riley Gaines. (IMAGN)

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“When we lean on this argument about fear, fear – wait a minute. Somebody’s not talking about your civil liberties, somebody’s not talking about equality, somebody’s not talking about those things allowing you to live and let live,” he said. “They’re talking about competition in sports. And if you allow somebody to compete in swimming it’s not gonna stop you from competing in boxing. It’s not gonna allow you to stop you from competing in other sports.”

Smith brought up the talk around Ronda Rousey taking on Floyd Mayweather Jr. in a fight when both athletes were the talk of the sports world. He said that while sports fans know now what would happen in the fight after Rousey lost to Amanda Nunes, it should not have been in the minds of any fan in the first place.

“We know that in most instances, even though there are women that could beat some men out there, by and large the elite women don’t deserve to be competing against the elite men,” he said. “By deserve … I’m talking about based on their gender. You shouldn’t be competing against men. I don’t want to see a Clarissa Shields in a boxing ring against Terence Crawford. 

“So when we’re talking about it from that premise – it’s one thing for ladies look at someone like me and say, ‘Who are you?’ It’s another thing entirely for ladies to be looking at ladies, acting like ladies don’t have the right to feel like there’s a disadvantage for them if they’re going up against a male transitioning to female.”

Smith went on to say he hoped that more men transitioned to women in order for sports leagues to have a transgender category to make it fair. However, World Aquatics tried to have an open category in 2022 and received no interest in the competition.

“If you ask me my preference? I hope a whole bunch of men transitioning to women come out of the woodwork. So we can have men going up against men, women going up against women and transgenders going up against transgenders. That’s fair,” he said. “But what Riley Gaines is talking about does seem a bit unfair, she has a right to express those thoughts without Simone Biles coming at her that way. Just because she lost? She’s talking about an unfair advantage.

Simone Biles from the USA waits for her score. (Marcus Brandt/picture alliance via Getty Images)

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“And there’s no one that could really dispute – if you are a male transitioning to female that there’s an unfair advantage. I don’t see women transitioning to men trying to compete in men’s sports. If it’s happened, and I missed it, I apologize. But I missed it, I haven’t seen that.”

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