• Simone Biles Deleted Her X Account After Backlash: Biles removed her Twitter (X) account with nearly two million followers after facing intense criticism for defending a transgender athlete and clashing with activist Riley Gaines.
• Controversy Sparked by Personal Comments: The Olympic gymnast apologized after calling Gaines’s views “sick” and making a personal jab, which ignited a wave of online attacks and accusations from former teammates like MyKayla Skinner.
• Fans Support Biles’ Decision to Step Away: While critics mocked her departure, many fans praised Biles for prioritizing her mental health and standing up for vulnerable youth, highlighting the emotional toll of online hostility.

Simone Biles has disappeared from X — the platform formerly known as Twitter — leaving behind nearly two million followers and a trail of controversy that sparked a national conversation. The seven-time Olympic gold medalist quietly deactivated her account this week, signaling that even the strongest among us can hit a breaking point when the online noise becomes too much to bear.

Her exit follows a turbulent few weeks where her name dominated headlines not for her gravity-defying flips, but for her comments in a heated debate over transgender athletes in school sports. While Biles has not released a statement about why she chose to delete her account, the timing leaves little room for doubt: she had enough.

The move has left fans and critics alike stunned, with many asking — what pushed the greatest gymnast of all time to walk away from a platform she used to engage with supporters, share career moments, and speak up on issues she cares about?

A Tipping Point After a Fierce Debate

The trouble began when Biles jumped into a social media firestorm involving Riley Gaines, a former college swimmer who has built her post-sporting career on opposing transgender inclusion in women’s sports. Gaines had been calling out high school teams that allowed trans athletes to compete, specifically naming and shaming individual students.

Biles, never one to jump into political debates, made a rare move: she defended one of the trans athletes Gaines was targeting. What followed was a rare and biting comment from the normally composed gymnast. She lashed out at Gaines, calling her views “truly sick” and mocking her with a jab about bullying “someone your own size, which would ironically be male.”

The response online was instant and overwhelming. While some praised Biles for standing up for vulnerable youth, many others criticized her for attacking Gaines personally. The comments flooded in — not just from strangers but from fellow public figures. Support turned into scrutiny, and scrutiny soon boiled into outright hostility.

Realizing her words had crossed a line, Biles offered a public apology within days. She clarified that her concern was about the harm of publicly targeting children, not about the debate on fairness in sports itself. “These are sensitive, complicated issues,” she wrote. “But I believe it starts with empathy and respect.”

Still, the apology did little to stop the noise.

The Internet Turned Against Her

After Biles posted her apology, Riley Gaines responded with a mix of sarcasm and criticism. She painted Biles as someone who couldn’t handle the pushback her opinions provoked. Then, just a day before Biles deleted her X account, Gaines hit her again with a parting shot, mocking the gymnast for what she called a “groveling apology” followed by an attempt to “pretend it never happened.”

Her words were harsh and unrelenting: “Sad to see such a phenom go down like this.”

Others soon piled on. MyKayla Skinner, Biles’s former Olympic teammate, added fuel to the fire by accusing her of being a bully behind the scenes. Skinner said there were “many times” she felt belittled by Biles during their careers together — a claim that reopened old wounds in the gymnastics community and gave critics even more ammunition.

What had started as a defense of a teenager had now become an all-out public spectacle.

Social Media Becomes a Battlefield

For Biles, who has used social media over the years to inspire fans, speak about mental health, and celebrate her triumphs, the shift was deeply personal. X was more than just a digital space — it was a direct line to millions of people who admired her.

But when the same platform turned toxic, Biles made a decision that many celebrities have struggled with: to unplug.

Her Instagram and Threads profiles — with 12.4 million and 2.1 million followers respectively — remain active, but she has yet to address her disappearance from X. No official statement. No final message. Just silence.

In today’s climate, where athletes are expected to be open books on everything from politics to personal trauma, Biles’s sudden retreat speaks volumes.

Fans React with Support and Sadness

As news of her account deletion spread, fans flooded other platforms with messages of support. Many expressed sadness that the gymnast was driven off the app she once used to uplift others.

“She stood up for kids and got torn down for it,” one fan wrote on Threads. “People forget she’s human.”

Others worried about her mental well-being, especially after Biles’s brave decision in the past to withdraw from Olympic events to prioritize her mental health. That move had earned her both praise and criticism — a pattern that seems to have repeated itself now.

Some voices, however, remained critical. “If you want to speak out, you need to handle the heat,” one user posted. “You can’t just disappear when people disagree with you.”

But for every critic, there were dozens defending Biles for choosing peace over drama. Many applauded her for knowing when to step away and protect her mental space.