Before the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, MyKayla Skinner, a retired U.S. Olympic gymnast, disparaged the current U.S. Women’s Olympic Gymnastics team in a since-deleted YouTube video. After the women’s team won gold, Simone Biles referenced Skinner’s remarks in a celebratory post on Instagram, and other Olympic athletes showed up in Biles’ comments section.
Shortly after the U.S. women’s gymnastics team was announced in June, Skinner said on YouTube, “Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t like what it used to be … [O]bviously a lot of girls don’t work as hard. The girls just don’t have the work ethic.” Skinner added, “Coaches can’t get on athletes, and they have to be really careful what they say.” Amid controversy about what Skinner said, the YouTube post was taken down, but clips are still on X.
After the 2024 victory, Biles shared a photo of herself alongside her teammates Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey, and Hezly Rivera, holding the U.S. flag, captioned: “Lack of talent, lazy, Olympic champions ❤️🥇🇺🇸.” Skinner, 27, who competed alongside Biles at the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo and took home Silver in the vault, has since retired from the sport to pursue a degree in broadcast journalism.
Skinner says her comments were misinterpreted
Earlier in July, MyKayla Skinner apologized for her remarks regarding the U.S. Olympic team, claiming her words were misinterpreted. In her Instagram stories, Skinner said she wasn’t necessarily referring to the current Olympic gymnasts, adding she loved and supported them. Instead, she said her remarks were about going to the gym these days and noticing the work ethic has changed. Especially compared to the Márta Károlyi era, she said, who along with her husband Bela, coached one of the most successful eras in U.S. gymnastics, but has since been implicated in the Larry Nassar abuse scandal.
“So anyway, sorry for anything that got out of context or seemed hurtful. That is never my intention. And seriously, throughout the video, I was so pumped for the girls, and it was so fun watching trials and doing a live with everybody,” Skinner added.
Skinner gave the women’s team their flowers, but was the damage done?
After the U.S. women’s gymnastics win, Mykayla Skinner congratulated the team in her Instagram stories, sharing a picture of the team receiving their medals and three heart emojis. The next day, however, Simone Biles posted on X that she was blocked, and although Biles does not clarify whether Skinner herself had blocked her, it seemed to reference the shade she threw at Skinner in her post.
So apparently some tension remains between Biles and Skinner. Based on the comments section on Biles’ original “Lack of talent” post from fans and even other Olympic athletes, public opinion is with Biles. Mykayla Maroney, a retired American Olympic gymnast who won gold in 2012, commented, “It doesn’t get more iconic than this. She f’d around n found out fr. Feels like I need to apologize just to redeem my first name [sic].” At the same time, Olympic alpine skier and two-time gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin added, “🤭 NEVER A DOUBT!!🫠” Proving, besides Skinner, team Mikayla is on Biles’ side.