In early July, former Team USA gymnast MyKayla Skinner questioned the work ethic of gymnasts today, saying their “talent and the depth just isn’t what it used to be.” She said that apart from Simone Biles, “a lot of girls don’t work as hard” and “just don’t have the work ethic.” After Team USA brought home gold at the Paris Olympics last week, Biles appeared to respond with a cheeky Instagram caption.
“Lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions,” Biles captioned a photo of herself with teammates Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey, and Hezly Rivera. Fans couldn’t help but feel like the caption was aimed at Skinner, who won a silver medal for her vault performance at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 when filling in for Biles after she withdrew from the finals.
The drama began earlier this summer, when Skinner posted a since-deleted YouTube video, claiming that the creation of SafeSport — an organization that monitors and works to prevent sexual, physical, and emotional abuse in the sport — was part of why, in her opinion, gymnasts weren’t working hard. She said that coaches “have to be really careful about what they say, which in some ways is really good, but at the same time, to get where you need to be in gymnastics, you have to be … a little aggressive and a little intense.”
The comments didn’t go over well. People criticized Skinner for undercutting her former teammates and glorifying a style of coaching that led to many traumatized athletes. On the same day, Biles wrote on Threads that “not everyone needs a mic and a platform.” Meanwhile, Chiles’s mother, Gina, wrote on X: “Whoa. She really said that out loud and posted it. That’s something.” After the backlash, Skinner apologized and said her words had been “misunderstood.” She added, “I am coming to terms that I have not fully dealt with the emotional and verbal abuse I endured.”
Hours after Biles posted her viral caption, she wrote, “Oop I’ve been blocked,” on X around the same time Chiles posted a photo suggesting she had also been blocked by Skinner. For her part, Skinner didn’t address the drama publicly until Tuesday. Nearly a week after Biles’s post, Skinner shared a video to Instagram, saying Biles’s caption “fueled another wave of hateful comments, DMs, articles, and emails” directed at herself and her family. “It’s one thing to disagree with me regarding something I have said or a point I was trying to make, but it’s something else entirely when that turns into cyberbullying or even worse,” she said.
Skinner also had a request for Biles: “To Simone, I am asking you directly and publicly to please put a stop to this. Please ask your followers to stop. You have been an incredible champion for mental-health awareness and a lot of people need your help now. We’ve been attacked in ways that I’m certain you never intended.”
This post has been updated.
