Nike presents itself as a company that’s about more than selling sports apparel. It isn’t, of course, but it wants people to think that it is.

The company preaches left-wing talking points like “inclusion,” “diversity,” “body positivity,” and other empty platitudes (while the only goal remains to sell as much merchandise as possible).

On its website, Nike has a page titled “Celebrating Every Girl’s Body,” where it says sport should celebrate “the unique beauty and diversity of our bodies,” warns about a “narrow definition of beauty,” criticizes messaging that encourages “under-eating and over-training,” and urges adults to create “Body Talk Free Zones.” On another Nike page, “No Pride, No Sport,” the company says it is committed to “LGBTQIA+ belonging and visibility in sport” and says its vision is one in which “every body is invited to play.”

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So, people might be shocked to find out that when it comes time to pay endorsers to don Nike apparel (again, to sell more Nike apparel), it’s not exactly about making sure “everybody is invited.”

That’s what makes former Nike Oregon Project runner Mary Cain’s new memoir a real issue for the sports apparel behemoth. Promoting the book on Sarah Spain’s podcast, Cain described what she calls “hot girl contracts,” basically saying Nike would openly sign some women because they were “hot.” Meanwhile, she faced talk of a “pay cut” or “getting terminated” under performance standards, despite being faster than some of the athletes kept for marketing value.

Cain’s book, “This Is Not About Running,” is not interesting because it reveals that Nike wants to make money. Of course, Nike wants to make money. It’s an American corporation and that’s always the goal.

Mary Cain claims Nike’s inclusivity and body positivity rhetoric clashes with alleged treatment of her. (Charlie Neibergall/AP)

What’s interesting is the gap between the sermon and the behavior. Cain’s memoir highlights the contrast between Nike’s body-positivity language and its actual marketing. In an excerpt published by “Outside,” Cain writes that she put on “five-pound Nike wrist weights” and went on long power walks because Alberto Salazar (former head coach of the Nike Oregon Project) told her she had “extra fat” to lose after a hydrostatic weigh-in.

Cain claims to have weighed 115 pounds at the time and says she couldn’t even access the weigh-in file herself and was simply told the result. That sounds like a story where a Nike official is pushing “under-eating and over-training,” exactly the opposite of what the company claims to promote.

Salazar has denied any wrongdoing, and The Guardian reports that he and Nike settled a lawsuit brought by Cain in 2023 alleging abuse.

The memoir rollout gets worse from there. In The Guardian’s interview tied to the book, Cain describes a Nike environment where people allegedly knew what was happening and let it continue. The piece reports that Salazar’s boss and Nike’s then vice-president of marketing allegedly told Cain cutting her hair might help her lose weight. It also reports that she was told she could not because she would “not look good,” and that she needed a different bra because people could see how large her breasts were.

Let’s go back to Nike’s own website and see how that squares with the virtues they pretend to have. Does this story sound like Nike is “Celebrating Every Girl’s Body,” or one where they want that body to look a certain way to sell more sneakers?

Nike pretends to be a company about more than selling sneakers, but really it is a company about selling sneakers. (Rachel Wisniewski/Reuters)

And if this all sounds familiar, it should. Because Cain’s memoir is not the only time Nike’s public virtue posture has crashed into basic questions about what the company is actually doing.

As OutKick first reported in 2025, evidence strongly suggested Nike was helping fund a study on youth transgender athletes as young as 12. In our reporting, two researchers tied to the project, Dr. Kathryn Ackerman and Joanna Harper, had publicly said Nike was funding the study. The New York Times also reported that Nike was funding it, and later told OutKick it was confident in the accuracy of that reporting.

Then came Nike’s response, and it was classic corporate subterfuge. At first, Nike did not answer repeated questions. Then, after public pressure grew, a Nike executive told OutKick on background that the study “was never initialized” and was “not moving forward.” But when OutKick asked whether Ackerman and Harper were wrong to say Nike funded it, the executive reportedly said “no one was wrong” and suggested there had been “gaps in the information chain.” Nike hid behind vague language because it did not want to explain itself.

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OutKick also found that the winter 2024 edition of Boston Children’s Hospital Magazine described the project as “supported in part by Nike, Inc.” and said the research was designed to answer questions about physiologic and athletic changes resulting from gender-affirming care. So now the public had researchers saying Nike funded the study, a major hospital publication saying Nike supported it, and the New York Times standing by reporting that Nike funded it. Yet Nike still mostly chose silence and evasiveness.

Then the story shifted again. Months later, Harper told Outsports that Nike had pulled out after “haters got wind of it,” which, of course, only made the whole thing murkier because it directly undercut the idea that the study had simply “never initialized.” In other words, Nike was apparently willing to let other people talk publicly about its support when the transgender movement was popular policy, but once scrutiny arrived (as Americans became aware of what was really happening in the “gender-affirming care” world), the company suddenly got quiet.

And that is why the trans-study reporting belongs in the same column as Mary Cain’s memoir.

These are not two separate Nike stories. Rather, they are both evidence of the same core issue within the company.

Nike preaches left-wing talking points, but ultimately is nothing more than a company with the sole goal of making money. (iStock)

Nike wants applause from the public, but it especially wants to please the very loud radical left-wingers who dominate social media. That’s why its website contains a page dedicated to body confidence; that’s why it uses words like “inclusivity” and “diversity”; that’s why there are so many cutesy slogans about belonging, pronouns and who gets to play.

But when real scrutiny arrives, whether it’s a former star publishing a memoir about how a female athlete’s body was actually treated inside a Nike-linked program, or reporters asking basic questions about a politically explosive youth athlete study, Nike suddenly becomes a master of silence, background comments and strategic vagueness.

That’s the part worth hammering, not that Nike is greedy or calculating. Of course, it is.

Companies are supposed to make money. They are supposed to want attention, market share and relevance. There is nothing remotely scandalous about Nike trying to sell more shoes or back causes it believes will help the brand. The problem is pretending all of this is moral enlightenment instead of corporate strategy. It makes Nike a hypocritical money-making machine. This doesn’t even include how the company largely keeps its mouth shut about China (since someone has to make those shoes and there are 1.4 billion potential buyers in the country) while crying “social justice” in America.

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Nike is free to make as much money as it can; that’s capitalism. Nobody is offended by that. But many people have had enough of the lecturing. Spare everyone the body-positivity pablum when public memoir excerpts describe a teenage runner being sent on wrist-weight power walks after being told she had fat to lose.

Cain also alleges that Nike paid less talented athletes more money because they made for better marketing. She’s talked about that dynamic publicly as ‘hot girl contracts,’ describing Nike discussions about signing some women for marketability while she faced pay-cut or termination talk despite being faster.

Again, duh. Better looking people generally sell more products.

But spare everyone the inclusivity talk because when it comes time to be “inclusive” about who gets the marketing checks, it turns out it’s a very exclusive group.

Stop lecturing Americans on “LGBTQIA+ belonging and visibility in sport” then stonewalling basic questions about a study involving “transgender-identifying” youth and medical transition when OutKick comes knocking.

Mary Cain’s memoir and OutKick’s reporting don’t prove that Nike is uniquely evil. They prove something much more ordinary and much more useful: Nike is a giant corporation that loves to virtue-signal when it’s good for business. What it doesn’t seem to love nearly as much is simple accountability.

That’s why Cain’s book matters. Not because it tells everyone Nike wants money. Everybody already knew that. It matters because it reminds people that when Nike starts lecturing Americans about bodies, inclusion or fairness, the first response should be very simple: sell the shoes and spare us the sermon.

OutKick reached out to Nike for comment on this story, but the company did not respond to our request.

Reference #18.f3680117.1777632982.217653e5

https://errors.edgesuite.net/18.f3680117.1777632982.217653e5

The president and first lady had just sat down on the dais at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner on Saturday. The color guard had left the room after “Hail to the Chief” and the National Anthem, and now we all took our seats and started the first course.

There was an upbeat mood in the large ballroom for the annual White House Correspondents Association Dinner. At a front table near the dais, I was seated next to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on one side and Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott on the other. My wife, Amy, was two seats away next to the secretary’s wife.

We had just passed the breadbasket around the table while making small talk when the sound of four distinct pops rang out in the distance, and the room seemed to freeze.

WORLD LEADERS CONDEMN ‘UNACCEPTABLE’ VIOLENCE AFTER ARMED ATTACK DISRUPTS WH CORRESPONDENTS’ DINNER

Seconds later, U.S. Secret Service agents were running down the center aisle, some on top of tables, with plates crashing to the ground while people were screaming, “Get down!” My wife and the secretary’s wife hid under the table; the secretary’s security detail was on top of him in seconds. The president, the first lady, and the vice president were whisked off the stage as agents in full tactical gear with long guns ran to the front of the dais and pointed their rifles over the crowd, scanning for any shooters.

No one was hurt.

Law enforcement personnel detain Cole Tomas Allen, a suspect in the shooting incident at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, in Washington, D.C., U.S. April 25, 2026.  (Donald J Trump via Truth Social/Handout via Reuters)

The shooter was stopped before making it into the massive ballroom. But the trauma of that moment, the latest assassination attempt on President Trump, was real for anyone in that room.

Across America, I could easily imagine people wailing in despair and frustration at yet another act of violence—by all accounts, at least the third assassination attempt on President Donald Trump.

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Violence, when it occurs, pierces our hearts and rattles our sense of common cause. Too many people feel that our unity has frayed after 250 years. They question whether our nation can continue to stand strong. And a shooting at a gathering to celebrate the First Amendment seems like a bitter setback.

But even as we were experiencing the trauma of that moment, President Trump was back at the White House, striking a different note. As we all know, this is a president who is not afraid to mix it up. He will engage in conflicts without hesitation. And he would have been forgiven had he expressed anger that night.

Instead, the president had a different message—one of unity. Speaking to the nation, he said, “We have to … resolve our differences.”

He described the hotel ballroom, filled with “Republicans, Democrats, independents, conservatives, liberals and progressives.” And he noted that after the incident, “there was a tremendous amount of love and coming together. I watched … and I was very, very impressed by that.”

ALLEGED WOULD-BE TRUMP ASSASSIN SHOT SECRET SERVICE OFFICER ‘POINT-BLANK’ IN DC HOTEL, DIRECTOR SAYS

The president spoke of encountering some Democrats as he was leaving. Acknowledging that they were usually hostile toward him, he said, “Last night they were waving to me. Politicians, congressmen, senators. They were waving and saying, ‘Great going’ and ‘Hello.’ The place was just coming together. It was very nice to see.”

For his part, President Trump admitted that he’d earlier planned to give a speech that was hard on the media. “I was gonna really rip it,” he said. But after the shooting, he knew he had to change his tone.

ENES KANTER FREEDOM: I CAME HERE FOR MY BASKETBALL DREAM. I STAY FOR FREEDOM AND THE AMERICAN DREAM

If the program had resumed, he would have given “a speech of love.”

I’m not saying that a few words, even when delivered by the president, can instantly change an environment that has grown more divisive in recent years. But a president’s words matter, especially at a moment of national crisis. Especially powerful, too, are words that speak of a personal change of heart.

Think about it. What is a better example of resilience than the statement, “I was going to say something divisive, but now I’m going to say something unifying”? We’re all capable of that simple gesture—in our families, among coworkers and friends, and yes, in our political lives.

As we prepare to celebrate our nation’s 250th anniversary, maybe we can set aside our angst, lay down the conspiracy theories, and reach out across the divide.

We don’t have to accept political violence. We don’t have to accept a constant clash of ideologies.

JONATHAN TURLEY: ELITES CALL THE CONSTITUTION ‘BROKEN’ BUT AMERICANS KNOW IT’S OUR GREATEST GIFT

This anniversary calls on us to recall the principles that allowed people who were very different from one another to write this vow in the Declaration of Independence: “We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

Bret Baier is the chief political anchor for Fox News and the host of “Special Report.” His new book, “The Case for America: An Argument on Behalf of Our Nation,” will be published on May 5, 2026, in celebration of the nation’s 250th Anniversary.  (FNM/Mariner Books)

Only two days after the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, we had another reminder of our strength and resilience. That reminder came from across the sea with the visit of King Charles and Queen Camilla.

Their visit was especially meaningful on the eve of our anniversary, which marks the occasion of our separation from Great Britain.

Yet here we are, two nations that have formed a close friendship. Although there have been times in our history when our policies have clashed, including some current frictions, King Charles brushed those disagreements aside.

Before a joint session of Congress, the king recalled that his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, was the only other monarch to ever give such a speech when she visited in 1991. He called it a “signal honor,” then and now.

“So, I come here today with the highest respect for the United States Congress,” he said, “this citadel of democracy created to represent the voice of all American people and to advance sacred rights and freedoms.”

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Referring to the shooting, he expressed solidarity with America. “We stand united in our commitment to uphold democracy, to protect all our people from harm, and to salute the courage of those who daily risk their lives in the service of our countries.” He praised America’s signature moment, which he called the “Spirit of 1776,” the year of our Declaration of Independence, wryly noting, “We can perhaps agree that we do not always agree.”

And here was his point, in words that will endure for some time. He delivered them sincerely to a roar of applause: “Our two countries have always found ways to come together. And by Jove, Mr. Speaker, when we have found that way to agree, what great change is brought about—not just for the benefit of our peoples, but of all peoples. This, I believe, is the special ingredient in our relationship.”

Later that evening, King Charles and Queen Camilla were honored at a state dinner, where the friendship continued to blossom.

Amy and I were proud to be present. The formal white-tie affair showed all the pomp and circumstance the White House can muster.

When we moved to the receiving line, President Trump, standing next to King Charles, said to me, “A really good speech on Capitol Hill by the king, right Bret?” I said, “Yes, sir. Your Majesty, it was quite a feat for the King of England, speaking to America ahead of its 250th anniversary and our independence from your country, to deliver a speech that managed to remind Americans to be more American, optimistic and forward-leaning.”

He smiled and replied, “Well said. Happy 250th.”

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After toasts and musical performances, the dinner wrapped up, and I realized I was witnessing once again the triumph of resilience over despair.

It’s a familiar American story, 250 years long.

Editor’s note: Bret Baier’s new book, “The Case for America: An Argument on Behalf of Our Nation,” will be published on May 5, 2026, in celebration of the nation’s 250th anniversary.

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FIRST AT FOX: Some 600 groups, including hard-line communists and groups affiliated with the Democratic Party, are mobilizing all over the country today to demonstrate for May Day, socialism’s high holy day.

A Fox News Digital investigation has identified a sprawling “red-blue” network with combined annual revenue of about $2 billion organizing some 3,000 protests and events and advancing what critics describe as an anti-American agenda. They have called for Americans to skip work, school and shopping.

At the center of the May Day mobilization, which has expanded from earlier indications, is a network of communist, socialist, Marxist and other far-left organizations, led by chapters of the Democratic Socialists of America and a network of groups – including the People’s Forum, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, ANSWER Coalition and Code Pink – funded by an American-born tech tycoon, Neville Roy Singham, based in Shanghai, promoting the propaganda of the Chinese Communist Party. 

The Communist Party of the USA has rallied workers to “rise against MAGA on May Day,” promoting leaflets by the “People’s World,” its Marxist-Leninist publication. The Revolutionary Communist Party has put out a call to dismantle the “capitalist-imperialist system.” The Maoist Communist Union has summoned members to join the “Anti-Imperialist Contingent” at the New York City protests.

The deeper concern, critics say, is that the pro-communist and pro-socialist network, symbolized by the color of red, is promoting May Day events with traditionally blue organizations that make up the Democratic Party network, including nonprofits Indivisible, MoveOn.org and the American Federation of Teachers, as well as at least 13 state and local chapters of the Democratic National Committee, including the California Democratic Party.

MAY DAY PROTESTS TO TAKE PLACE FRIDAY AS AGITATORS ACROSS THE US PUSH “WORKERS OVER BILLIONAIRES” MOTTO

The California Democratic Party is using the pro-Democratic tech platform, Mobilize.us, to promote “Workers over Billionaires May Day rally” protests, like at the corner of Monroe Street and Highway 11 in Indio, Calif. In its publicity material, the California Democratic Party notes it’s “the largest state party in the nation with more than 10 million members.”

The Ohio Democratic Party Progressive Caucus, North Carolina’s Young Democrats of Moore County, Young Democrats of Wisconsin and the Yuba County Democratic Central Committee are on the official list of organizers for a coalition, “May Day Strong,” promoted online. 

In Ohio, the Licking County Democrats organization is hosting a “May Day Strong” protest at the courthouse in Newark, promoting the national event’s official mantra: “No Work No School No Shopping.” The groups didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Meanwhile, local chapters of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, an openly communist group in the Singham network, organized “Art Build” projects across the country, including in Washington, D.C., and Chicago, to build May Day signs at its “Liberation Centers,” located in about 25 metropolitan U.S. cities. Members shuttled inside, painting banners and readying their protest gear.

Leaders at the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s Chicago “Liberation Center” post anti-ICE signs on its window, seen on Jan. 29, 2026, promoting student walkouts and the message, “Chicago Resists.” It later hosts an “Art Build” sessions to support teacher and student walkouts for May Day 2026. (Kamil Krzaczynski for Fox News Digital)

“The increasing willingness of mainstream Democrats to align with extremist socialist groups is a major factor in why the Democratic Party is losing the center more and more, and why so many lifelong Democrats find themselves feeling politically homeless,” Democratic strategist Melissa DeRosa told Fox News Digital.

“May Day has a proud history of honoring workers,” she said, “but too many Democratic organizations have allowed that tradition to be hijacked by the activist fringe — including groups aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America, pushing a fantasy agenda that has failed everywhere it has been tried.”

“The increasing willingness of mainstream Democrats to align with extremist socialist groups is a major factor in why the Democratic Party is losing the center more and more, and why so many lifelong Democrats find themselves feeling politically homeless.”

— Democratic strategist Melissa DeRosa

Together, political analysts say the new May Day network shows how a once-fringe ideological coalition has moved into the bloodstream of Democratic-aligned organizing — linking communist groups, socialist chapters, anti-Israel activists, labor unions, immigration groups, climate organizations and Democratic Party affiliates in a national protest campaign critics say is less about worker solidarity than about advancing a radical political agenda.

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On the eve of May Day, organizers sent out a professionally composed media advisory, with the email’s metadata directing readers to reply to a name associated with public relations for a Chicago teachers’ union. (Fox News Digital)

In a reflection of the coordination of the red-blue alliance, the “May Day Strong” coalition issued a press release at 4:39 p.m. on Thursday with the email’s metadata identifying the sender as Adolfo Flores, a public relations expert at On Point, a media relations firm that has done public relations for the Illinois Federation of Teachers, which works closely with the Democratic Party. Flores didn’t return a request for comment.

In his press release, Flores wrote, organizers say more than “3,000 May Day events” nationwide will mobilize workers and students under the banner “Workers Over Billionaires,” framing the protests as a response to what they call an “authoritarian billionaire takeover of government.” The advisory highlights large-scale actions, including “more than 100,000 students expected to walk out” and coordinated efforts in multiple cities urging “No Work, No School, No Shopping,” with some leaders stating “we can and will shut it down to secure prosperity for all working people.” 

The coalition’s core demands – “Tax the rich,” “No ICE. No War,” and “Expand Democracy, not corporate power” – are paired with broader claims that the system is “rigged” by elites, that policies are “attacking our neighbors” and “turning ICE loose on our neighborhoods” and that current leadership is “seeking to end democracy as we know it,” according to the press release.

Across statements, participants, including traditionally Democratic-aligned leaders from the Illinois Federation of Teachers and Chicago Teachers Union, the National Education Association, the AFL-CIO, the American Federation of Teachers, 50501 and the United Auto Workers, among others, emphasize mass mobilization and collective action, arguing “we are organizing… to demand change” and that “real change happens when working people act together.”

COMMUNISTS, DEMOCRATS USE #NOKINGS RALLY TO CALL FOR MAY DAY STRIKE: “SHUT IT DOWN”

General strike literature is displayed on a table during a No Kings protest at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul, Minnesota, on March 29, 2026. Protesters gathered with flags from various organizations, including the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. (Derek Shook/Fox News Digital)

The so-called “red-blue” alliance exposes a growing challenge inside Democratic politics, political experts say, as the Democratic Party’s activist infrastructure increasingly overlaps with groups and influencers, like controversial Democratic Socialists of America influencer Hasan Piker, as they echo anti-American rhetoric and propaganda narratives promoted by U.S. adversaries, including China.

In the 600 estimated total, Indivisible, one of the largest Democratic Party-aligned grassroots networks in the country, has at least 200 chapters nationwide supporting May Day events, from Yorktown, N.Y., to Tempe, Ariz., appearing alongside about 80 chapters of the Democratic Socialists of America. 

Indivisible has received millions of dollars in funding over the years from billionaire George Soros’ philanthropy network, and it has led the organizing for three “No Kings” protests produced after Trump’s inauguration to protest his administration. Many of the groups involved in “No Kings” protests are organizing the May Day events, reflecting the shared ecosystem of anti-Trump rhetoric built around this professional protest infrastructure.

Law enforcement officials said alleged would-be assassin Cole Allen attended a “No Kings” protest in Los Angeles, according to his family, before attempting to kill Trump the night of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner this past weekend. His manifesto parroted the precise language that the groups rallying for May Day have alleged against Trump, calling him a “pedophile,” “traitor” and “rapist,” among other unsubstantiated aspersions.

Allen’s hometown of Torrance, Calif., where he lived with his parents before boarding an Amtrak to allegedly kill Trump and cabinet members, is hosting a May Day protest Friday evening at the corner of Hawthorne Boulevard and Sepulveda Boulevard, where local activists have regularly held “No Kings” protests. 

In its promo, the Torrance protest organizers noted: “A core principle behind all our events is a commitment to nonviolent action.”

However, they wrote more prominently: “Because when the billionaires break every rule, it’s going to take more than a rally to stop them.” 

Among the strongest forces behind the protest ecosystem, fusing increasingly with Democratic groups, is the network tied to Singham, the American-born tech tycoon living in Shanghai. A Fox News Digital investigation found that Singham pumped an estimated $278 million into the constellation of groups driving divisive street mobilizations in the U.S., like the May Day protests. BreakThrough News, a media outlet in the Singham-funded network, regularly parrots language the tycoon delivered at a conference in Shanghai last fall, expressing support for the Marxist “new world order” of the Chinese Communist Party and decrying the “fascism” of the U.S.

POWER COUPLE OF CHAOS: HOW A TYCOON AND ACTIVIST BUILT A ‘REVOLUTIONARY BASE’ AT THE HOUSE OF SINGHAM

For some political analysts in the Democratic center, the alliance with socialists represents an ill-fated quest to win over working people.

 “The Democratic Party used to speak the language of work, wages, dignity, family, safety and upward mobility,” said Derosa, the Democratic strategist. “Now it’s morphing into a pamphlet for the Democratic Socialists of America: slogans instead of policy, disruption instead of leadership and the demonization of free enterprise instead of a serious plan to help working families get ahead.” 

“That is not how you build a majority. That is how you turn a governing party into a protest movement — and a losing one,” she said.

Undeterred, late Thursday afternoon, the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s chapter in North Carolina reminded members to meet at “the Quad” on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for the May Day protests, pressing the narrative, “We are many. They are few.”

Fox News Digital’s Kyle Schmidbauer contributed to this report.

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Reference #18.f3680117.1777632212.21614182

https://errors.edgesuite.net/18.f3680117.1777632212.21614182

Simone Biles is learning the hard way that going glam for a red carpet comes at a price. A very high price.

In a TikTok video posted this week, the Olympic gold medalist broke down the cost of her most recent red carpet appearance. And let’s just say, she’s not thrilled about it.

“We need to have a discussion… I just need to know if this is normal,” Biles said at the start of the video. “I know going outside is expensive as f–k these days, but like is it this expensive, ok?” 

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Olympian Simone Biles of Team United States poses on the Today Show set in Paris, France, on Aug. 6, 2024. (Kristy Sparow/Getty Images)

She explained that she had just attended a red carpet event and added up all the costs afterward. After factoring in her stylist, hair and makeup team, Biles revealed the total. And it clearly caught her off guard.

“Yeah, $22,000,” she said. “Actually $23,000.” 

From there, she doubled down on the question that was clearly eating at her.

“I just want to know, is that f—ing normal? I get inflation, I get prices these days have gone up,” she said. “But if that’s the new norm, y’all can have it. Y’all will never see me at another event. I’m going to sit my ass right here where it’s free.”

She even admitted the whole thing has been bothering her more than expected.

“I’ve been kind of spiraling since then,” she said. “And there’s no way you guys are paying these prices each and every time … there’s just no way.”

Oof. This one should have stayed in the drafts.

Now, on the surface, there’s nothing inherently wrong with any of this. It’s Simone’s money. She can spend it however she wants.

But sharing that kind of sticker shock with an audience where plenty of people aren’t even spending $23,000 on their rent or mortgage for an entire year? That’s going to come across as at least a little tone deaf.

And, judging by the comments, the internet thought so, too.

“Damn. Talk about being out of touch.”

“The gas station near me went from $3.95 to $4.59 overnight so going outside definitely is expensive but not for the reasons she thinks.”

“I like her and wish her the best, but this is not it.”

Simone Biles stands at the award ceremony with her gold medal. (Marijan Murat/picture alliance via Getty Images)

To be fair to Biles, she did preface the video by specifically addressing fellow celebrities, athletes and influencers. But that group makes up a very, very small percentage of her 5.6 million followers.

So maybe this could have been a group text?

SIMONE BILES REVEALS SHE UNDERWENT ‘THREE PLASTIC SURGERIES’

What’s also interesting is that even people in that world seem to think $23K is steep. Based on responses, the typical range for a red carpet glam team sounds closer to the $5,000-$6,000 range. Still absurd to the average person, but a far cry from what Biles paid.

And that’s kind of where this lands.

Again, she can spend whatever she wants. But you could definitely do this cheaper.

I say that as someone with exactly zero red carpet experience — so you know, grain of salt. But it feels similar to weddings. Some people drop $50,000 on one day. Others don’t. Both options exist.

Same deal here.

Simone Biles attends the Laureus World Sports Awards gala at the Galeria de Cristal del Palacio de Cibeles in Madrid, Spain, on April 20, 2026. (Jose Oliva/Europa Press)

If anything, this feels like a missed opportunity. Biles is the most decorated gymnast of all time. She has a massive platform. There are probably thousands of small designers, independent stylists and up-and-coming hair and makeup artists who would jump at the chance to work with her — and likely for a lot less than $23K.

Not for free, of course. But for exposure? Absolutely.

Instead of questioning whether she got ripped off, she could flip this into supporting smaller businesses and helping launch someone’s career.

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As for the event itself, Biles didn’t specify which red carpet outing this was for. But her most recent appearance came at the Laureus World Sports Awards in Madrid. And she did look phenomenal.

Twenty-three thousand well spent!