Topline
Retired Olympian MyKayla Skinner has asked former teammate Simone Biles for help to fend off what she says are bullying comments and threats made online after a feud between the two came to a head following Team USA’s gold medal Olympic win in Paris last week.
Mykayla Skinner of Team USA competes at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 20221.
Key Facts
Skinner—who caught the attention of Biles last month when she posted a video criticizing the work ethic, “talent and the depth” of this year’s gymnastics team—said in a video posted to Instagram Tuesday that she’s been the victim of “cyberbullying” since Biles responded to the criticism with a cheeky Instagram caption.
Biles posted a photo of the gold medal winning Olympic team waving the American flag with the caption “Lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions ❤️🥇🇺🇸,” seemingly a response to the video, which Skinner said kicked off “disgusting” behavior toward her and her family online.
Biles’ post and others “fueled another wave of hateful comments, DMs, articles, emails and hate that includes death threats to me, my family and even my agent,” Skinner said.
Skinner said in her most recent post that she takes “100% responsibility for poorly articulating the point I was trying to make,” in the original video, and said she knows the women of the U.S. gymnastics team are “incredible” and the “best of the best.”
She also said she sent individual apology messages to each of the women on the team and that Biles responded saying “she was proud of me” (though Biles posted immediately after the win that she’d been blocked by Skinner on Instagram).
Skinner ended her most recent post with a plea for Biles, who has not responded on Instagram or X to the new video, to “please put a stop to this.”
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Crucial Quote
“To Simone, I am asking you directly and publicly to please put a stop to this. Please ask your followers to stop,” Skinner said. “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 am certain you never intended.”
Key Background
Skinner, 27, said in a now-deleted YouTube video in early July that she thought the most recent class of gymnasts didn’t have the “talent and depth” of the women who came before them. With the exception of Biles, “a lot of girls don’t work as hard, the girls just don’t have the work ethic,” Skinner said. At the time, Biles posted to Threads that “Not everyone needs a mic and a platform.” After Team USA earned the gold medal in women’s gymnastics, Biles posted her headline-making response alongside several group photos of the team to Instagram. Suni Lee, a member of the U.S. team, commented “Put a finger down if Simone Biles just ended you.” Skinner hadn’t posted to Instagram since until Tuesday’s video.
Big Number
2. That’s how many Olympics Biles and Skinner competed in together. Skinner was an alternate for the 2016 Olympic team in Brazil. At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, she earned a non-nominative spot, meaning she could compete in individual competition but would not be part of the four-member U.S. team. After Biles dropped out of the Tokyo Olympics citing mental health issues, Skinner was moved into a qualifying spot for the individual vault competition and ultimately won a silver medal. She retired from the sport later that year.
Further Reading
Mary Roeloffs is a Forbes reporter who covers breaking news with a frequent focus on the entertainment industry, streaming, sports news, publishing, pop culture and climate change. She joined Forbes in 2023 and lives in Dallas. She’s covered Netflix’s hottest documentaries, a surge of assaults reported on social media, the most popular books of the year and how climate change stands to impact the way we eat. Roeloffs was included on Editor & Publisher Magazine’s “ 25 Under 30” list in 2023 and worked covering local news in the greater Boston area from 2017 to 2023. She graduated with a double major in political science and journalism from Northeastern University. Follow Roeloffs for continued coverage of streaming wars, pop culture news and trending topics.
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