MyKayla Skinner calls on Simone Biles to ‘put a stop’ to cyberbullying after viral Olympic post

American Olympic gymnast MyKayla Skinner is speaking out about her former teammate Simone Biles’ seemingly pointed tweet following Team USA’s Paris Olympics gold medal win in women’s gymnastics.

Skinner, who competed alongside Biles on the 2020 U.S. women’s Olympics gymnastics team, said in a new video posted to her Instagram account Tuesday that she experienced cyberbullying, including threats of “physical harm” to her family, after Biles posted a series of photos of the 2024 U.S. women’s gymnastics team on Instagram following their gold medal win with the caption, “lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions.”

Skinner, the mom of a 10-month-old daughter, said in the video, “To Simone, I am asking you directly and publicly to please put a stop to this. Please ask your followers to stop.”

“You have been an incredible champion for mental health awareness, and lot of people need your help now. We’ve been hurt and attacked in ways that I am certain you never intended,” she continued, explaining that her friends and family have “been caught in the crossfire.”

“Your performance, your 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,” she added. “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.”

Mykayla Skinner, left, and Simone Biles of the United States during a training session at the Ariake Gymnastics Arena ahead of the start of the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic

The back-and-forth between Skinner and Biles, now the most decorated American gymnast in Olympic history, started in June after Skinner said some gymnasts — which many took to mean members of the 2024 team — lacked “work ethic.”

“Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t like what it used to be,” Skinner said in part, in a since-deleted YouTube video posted during the Olympic trials in June. “Just notice like, I mean, obviously a lot of girls don’t work as hard. The girls just don’t have the work ethic.”

After her comments received backlash, Skinner claimed in a video posted to her Instagram story on July 3 that her initial comments had been “misinterpreted” or “misunderstood,” adding that they “[weren’t] necessarily about the current team.”

Skinner, who retired from gymnastics following the 2020 Olympics, later posted a formal apology on social media on July 6.

“I want to formally apologize to Team USA and to our gymnastic community for my comments during my recent YouTube episodes of the gymnastics Olympic trials,” Skinner wrote, in part. “It was not my intention to offend or disrespect any of the athletes or to take away from their hard work. Your hard work and dedication has paid off and I congratulate each and every one of you.”

Mykayla Skinner of Team United States competes in the Women’s Vault Final on day nine of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Ariake Gymnastics Centre on Aug. 1, 2021 in Tokyo.
Maja Hitij/Getty Images, FILE

The public controversy around Skinner’s comments seemingly erupted again with Biles’ July 31 post on Instagram, which many people interpreted as a pointed response to Skinner’s earlier remarks.

The U.S. women’s gymnastics team — composed of Jordan Chiles, Suni Lee, Hezly Rivera and Jade Carey, in addition to Biles — took home the gold medal in the women’s team competition in Paris.

Simone Biles of Team United States competes in the Artistic Gymnastics – Women’s Floor Exercise Final on day ten of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Bercy Arena on A..

In her newly-posted Instagram video, Skinner said she sent personal apologies to the women on the Paris Olympic team following her remarks, for which she said she takes “100% responsibility.”

“To be totally clear, I take 100% responsibility for poorly articulating the point I was trying to make, and the last thing I wanted was to cause harm or offend our U.S. Olympic team,” Skinner said Tuesday. “I know these women are incredible, the very best of the best, and almost all of them are my former teammates who I have enjoyed very much cheering on the last few years.”

Skinner also said she feels “heartbroken” about what has transpired.

“If Simone truly believes that I called our team lazy and lacking talent, and if that’s really how she feels, I am really heartbroken over it,” Skinner said. “But not just heartbroken because it isn’t how I feel or even what I previously said, but heartbroken because Simone’s latest post and others that followed it fueled another wave of hateful comments, DMs, articles and emails.”