Simone Biles and the United States women's gymnastics team earned gold medals in the artistic team all-around competition, giving Biles, 2012 Olympic gold medalist McKayla Maroney, and many others an opportunity to fire back at a notable critic: former American Olympian MyKayla Skinner.
Skinner, who went with Biles and Team USA as an alternate to the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and who earned a silver medal at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo in the vault, made some comments earlier this summer that drew widespread criticism. In particular, Skinner questioned whether the current American gymnastics team worked hard enough to achieve the same success it had previously.
“Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn't what it used to be,” Skinner said in a since-deleted YouTube video. “I mean, obviously, a lot of girls just don't work as hard. The girls just don't have the work ethic.”
After winning gold, Biles used the moment to not-so-subtly take a shot at Skinner's criticism of her teammates on Instagram.
“lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions,” Biles wrote on a post that included multiple photos of Biles and her teammates.
“It doesn’t get more iconic than this,” Maroney replied on Instagram. “She f’d around n found out fr. Feels like I need to apologize just to redeem my first name.”
MyKayla Skinner in hot water after comments on Simone Biles, Team USA
While MyKayla Skinner's opinion of the current talent and work ethic level of the current U.S. women's gymnastics team is one thing, her comments on the purported effect of the United States Center for SafeSport, a nonprofit to address and reduce sexual abuse of athletes in Olympic sports.
“It's hard, too, because of SafeSport,” Skinner said. “Coaches can't get on athletes and they have to be really careful what they say, which in some ways is really good, but at the same time, to get to where you need to be in gymnastics, you do have to be a little aggressive, a little intense.”
After receiving backlash, Skinner initially said that she had been “misinterpreted or misunderstood,” in particularly when discussing the current American team.
“A lot of the stuff that I was talking about wasn't always necessarily about the current team, because I love and support all the girls that made it and I'm so proud of them,” Skinner said.
However, in that apology, Skinner also referenced the coaching of Márta Károlyi, the former national team coordinator of the U.S. women's gymnastics team who, along with her husband, has been accused of abuse and allowing former U.S. team doctor Larry Nassar to abuse hundreds of athletes.
“I'm not sticking up for Márta or saying what she did was good, I'm just saying it was different,” Skinner said. “Sorry for anything that got out of context or seemed hurtful. Throughout the video, I was so pumped for the girls and it was so fun watching trials and doing a live with everybody.”
Skinner issued another apology after those comments, saying: “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 full responsibility for what I said and I deeply apologize.”
Regardless of the latest apology, it appears the gymnastics team proved any doubters wrong while in Paris by winning the gold medal for the third time in the last four Olympics.
Simone Biles's Instagram post drew many responses, most of which were supportive, including from Jonathan Owens, Biles's husband and an NFL defensive back for the Chicago Bears.
“F AROUND AND FIND OUT,” Owens wrote.
Biles will try to increase her personal gold medal count over the weekend and throughout next week in Paris.
Follow Us
Subscribe
