It seems like the drama between Simone Biles and fellow gymnast MyKayla Skinner isn’t over.
After Skinner made a comment about the U.S. Olympics gymnastics team’s work ethic in a now-deleted YouTube video on June 30, Biles posted an Instagram photo with the caption, “lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions,” which seemed to be a direct dig at Skinner. This led Skinner to block Biles on Instagram. Now, Skinner has called on Biles to end their drama and apologize for her Instagram caption.
On Aug. 6, Skinner broke the silence on her apparent online drama with Biles in a video posted on Instagram. In the video, Skinner asked Biles to tell her followers to stop cyberbullying her and her family. “Watching people cheer on the bullying, which has lead to threats of physical harm to me, my husband, and our daughter is just disgusting. So at this point, I am asking for it just to stop for the sake of my family,” Skinner said. “Enough is enough.”
She went on to address and apologized for her previous comments about Biles’ teammates.“The last thing I wanted was to cause harm or offend our U.S. Olympic Team,” Skinner said. “I know these women are incredible, the best of the best and almost all of them are my former teammates, who I have enjoyed cheering on the past few years.”
Skinner shared a statement on July 6 publicly apologizing for her comments.“It was not my intention to offend or disrespect any of the athletes or to take away their hard work,” the statement read. ”Upon reflection I was comparing the ‘Marta Era’ to the current era. I am coming to terms that I have not fully dealt with the emotional and verbal abuse I endured under Marta that perhaps led to my hurtful comments. I take the responsibility for what I said and I deeply apologize.”
In her Aug. 6 video, Skinner said that she has since sent written apology letters to Team USA’s 2024 gymnastics team, which consists of Biles, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey, Suni Lee, and Hezley Rivera.
Out of all the girls on the team, Skinner said Biles was the only one who responded and “told me that she was proud of me.” But Skinner said she was surprised “to see this brought up all over again by a caption on an Instagram post.”
Skinner then shared her thoughts on Biles’ IG post. “She truly believes that I called our team lazy and lacking talent. If that’s really how she feels, I am really heartbroken over it,” Skinner said. She then expressed that she was saddened by Biles’ post because it “fueled another wave of hateful comments, DMs, articles and emails. Hate that includes death threats to me, my family and my agents.”
Skinner went on to address Biles directly, asking her “to please put a stop to this.” She added, “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 hurt and attacked in ways that I’m certain you never intended. 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. I hope we can move on and move forward and cheer on the rest of our teammates and athletes together.”
I wonder if Biles will respond to Skinner’s video? If she does, I’ll be sure to update you besties!