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Simone Biles didn’t say MyKayla Skinner’s name. She didn’t have to.
Hours after the U.S. women’s gymnastics team claimed the gold medal in Tuesday’s team competition, the celebration continued.
For now five-time Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles, that meant taking the message to social media with some late-night posting in Paris. Her new lead Instagram post from early Wednesday local time features a triumphant image of herself and her teammates Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey, Suni Lee and Hezly Rivera celebrating their success with the American flag.
It was captioned with a message for Skinner, her silver-medalist teammate from the Tokyo Games.
“lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions,” Biles wrote.
That was it. Message delivered.
In case you missed it, Skinner had some harsh words about USA gymnasts not named Biles in a YouTube video that streamed after the Olympic Trials.
Part 1: The gymnastics community cannot let these comments to be swept under the rug. I will be as respectful as possible to @mykaylaskinner but instead of engaging in meaningful conversation she blocks anyone who holds her accountable for her words. pic.twitter.com/Y69pwCxnUG
— Riley W (@gymguyri) July 3, 2024
“Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t what it used to be,” Skinner said. … “I just noticed, like, I mean, obviously, a lot of girls don’t work as hard. The girls just don’t have the work ethic.”
Skinner went on to suggest that SafeSport’s efforts to end abuse of athletes led to lax coaching that doesn’t push athletes hard enough and that Team USA would face weak competition in Paris. She also criticized individual U.S. gymnasts performances in the Olympic Trials.
“Some of the other girls that fell twice, and still ending up in second place in the all-around is kind of crazy to me,” Skinner continued.
Skinner, who had a child in September, did not participate in Olympic Trials.
Skinner’s comments drew swift backlash from the gymnastics community, including from Biles, who wrote on social media that “not everyone needs a mic and a platform.”
Skinner released another video in response to the backlash blaming viewers for having “misinterpreted or misunderstood exactly what I was meaning or had said” while claiming that her criticism “wasn’t always necessarily about the current team.”
Three days later, she issued this apology on Instagram:
The apology apparently wasn’t sufficient for Biles, who carried Skinner’s words with her to Paris. Her response was the continued dominance of the sport and the public support of her fellow gold-medal winning teammates.
