Retired gymnast MyKayla Skinner has called on her former teammate, Simone Biles, to "put a stop" to the hate that's surrounded her since she made controversial comments about this year's U.S. women's Olympic team — and namely since Biles reignited the conversation with an Instagram caption last week.
Skinner, who competed on the 2020 U.S. women's Olympic gymnastics team with Biles, said in a video posted to her Instagram Tuesday that she's been subject to cyberbullying and that her family has also received "threats of physical harm" in recent weeks. This, she said in the video, was compounded by fans who "cheer on the bullying," by Biles' post seemingly shading Skinner and the "wave of hateful comments, DMs, articles and emails" that followed.
This back-and-forth drama within the gymnastics world began in June when Skinner posted a now-deleted YouTube video about the 2024 Olympic team.
"Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn't what it used to be," Skinner said in the YouTube video. "I mean, obviously, a lot of girls just don't work as hard. The girls just don't have the work ethic."
The comments drew backlash, in part, because many of the women representing Team USA in this year's team were also Skinner's 2020 teammates. In 2020, Skinner competed in an individual event along with Jade Carey while Biles, Jordan Chiles, Suni Lee and Grace McCallum competed in the team event. This year, Biles, Chiles, Lee, Carey and Hezly Rivera made up the team.
Skinner later said in another video posted to her Instagram on July 3 that her comments about the girls were "misinterpreted" and "misunderstood" before posting a formal apology a few days later saying she didn't intend "to offend or disrespect" the athletes.
In her latest video, Skinner said she takes "100% responsibility for poorly articulating the point I was trying to make" and said that the 2024 team was "the very best of the best." She said she also sent individual messages to each team member, though Biles was the only one who responded to say she was proud of Skinner.
Skinner then said viewers could "imagine my surprise" when she saw the drama strongly reignited after Biles' Instagram post. The post, celebrating the team's gold medal win at the 2024 Games, appeared to call back to Skinner's comments with the caption, "lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions." Biles said on social media the next day that Skinner had blocked her on Instagram.
In her latest video, Skinner said that if Biles "truly believes that I called our team lazy and lacking talent... I am really heartbroken over it." But she said she wasn't only heartbroken because "it isn't what I feel or even what I previously said," but because the post fueled cyberbullying that has included death threats to her and those close to her.
"My family and my friends don't deserve to be caught in the crossfire here. They've done nothing," Skinner said.
She concluded the video by asking Biles "directly and publicly" to ask her followers to end their attacks. She noted the champion's work in mental health, saying "a lot of people need your help now."
"We've been hurt and attacked in ways that I am certain you never intended," Skinner said. "Your performance, the team's performance and the Olympics in general should be a time that we support one another and lift each other and our country up. I love our country, and I love our team and I hope that we can move on and move forward and cheer on the rest of our teammates and our athletes together."
Biles, who took home three gold medals and one silver medal in Paris, hasn't yet responded to Skinner's video.
