I'm gonna make a bold presumption and say it wouldn't matter what the other guy started to say, religious argument or not. They have no interest in hearing any that would threaten their worldview, since it's just that fragile.
The way it’s written is so terribly clunky, you know that the writer has a list of every awful thing they sling at people they dislike and dumped all of those traits onto the villain since “Of course the villain has these views. How else will people know he’s a villain and it’s okay to hate him!”
I have kids that age. It's infuriating and I feel for the parents. Maybe they did wrong in falling for it, or just capitulating to the Science! mob, but still at the end of the day they were probably just doing the best thing for her and they got the worst ending.
I don't believe for one second that she willingly apologized. Say want you want about if she should have or not, but I can imagine she was all but threatened to have her entire life ruined and never get a chance to compete again, something she trained for her entire life. She was likely told that if she wants to have a chance again to say the words or she would never see a competitive match again.