MyKayla Skinner calls on Simone Biles to ‘put a stop to’ online bullying amid gymnastics drama

MyKayla Skinner has called on Simone Biles “to put a stop” to online bullying amid the gymnasts’ drama.

The 27-year-old former gymnast took to Instagram on August 6 where she specifically addressed her former teammate. The post came after Biles took to Instagram to seemingly reference Skinner’s controversial remarks about the US women’s gymnastics team’s lack of “worth ethic”, after Team USA won the all-around event at the Paris 2024 Olympics on July 30. After that, Biles hinted that Skinner had blocked her on social media, which Jordan Chiles seemingly confirmed in her own Instagram Story.

In her recent video, Skinner addressed the viral drama among the gymnasts, claiming she’s been bullied online because of it. She also alleged that there have been “disgusting” threats of “physical harm” towards, her husband, Jonas Harmer, and their daughter, Charlotte, who they welcomed last year.

She went on to acknowledge and apologize for the outrage she sparked in July, when she first claimed that “talent and the depth” of the US women’s gymnastics team “just isn’t like what it used to be.”

“I made a comment about work ethic and what seems to be taking pace with the rising generation. To be totally clear, I take 100 percent responsibility for poorly articulating the point I was trying to make and the last thing I wanted was to cause harm or offend our US Olympic team,” she explained. “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 noted that when she posted an apology video on Instagram to clarify her comments last month, she “followed up with a written apology and sent individual messages” to the women on the US team. She claimed only Biles responded, and said she was “proud” of her former teammate, which Skinner said was why she was then stunned by Biles’ apparent reference to the “work ethic” comments on social media and the online scrutiny that came afterward.

“You guys can imagine my surprise last week when I was celebrating our team winning gold just to see this brought up all over again by a caption on an Instagram post,” she added. “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. But not just heartbroken because it isn’t what I feel or even how I previously said, but because Simone’s latest post and others that followed it fueled another wave of hateful comments, DMs, articles and emails.”

She then sent a message directly to Biles, asking the most decorated gymnast to put an end to the criticism that Skinner was receiving online. Skinner also acknowledged how Biles has been an advocate for mental health awareness, as the 27-year-old even revealed that she was in therapy throughout the 2024 Paris Olympics.

“To Simone, I am asking you directly and publicly to please put a stop to this. Please ask your followers to stop,” she continued in the Instagram video. “You have been an incredible champion for mental health awareness and a lot of people need your help now. We’ve been 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.”

On July 30, Biles appeared to hit back at Skinner’s “work ethic” remarks in the caption of her post – which showed her and her teammates after winning the gold. “Lack of talent, lazy, Olympic champions,” she wrote.

Multiple people online noticed the dig, including former artistic gymnast McKayla Morney, who quipped about her first name being so similar to Skinner’s. “It doesn’t get more iconic than this... She f’d around n found out fr,” Maroney wrote. “Feels like I need to apologize just to redeem my first name.”

However, Skinner had already shown her support for the US gymnasts after their gold medal win, posting a photo of the winning US team from July 30 on her Instagram Story, along with three heart emojis.

Still, the decorated Olympian continued to add fuel to the fire of feud rumors. In a post shared to X on July 31, Biles wrote: “Oops I’ve been blocked,” prompting fans to speculate that the person who blocked her was Skinner. The speculation appeared to be confirmed by Jordan Chiles, who took a picture of her teammates’ phone, revealing Biles was unable to see any of Skinner’s posts on Instagram. “When she blocks Simone,” Chiles wrote.

Last month, multiple athletes appeared to call Skinner out for her “work ethic” comments, with Biles notably writing on Instagram Threads that “not everyone needs a mic and a platform.” Meanwhile, Chiles’ mother commented: “Whoa. She really said that out loud and posted it. That’s something....”

Skinner then took to her Instagram Story to clarify the comments she made in a YouTube video, saying they had been “misunderstood” and “misinterpreted.” She continued to explain her comments were primarily based on her own experience getting back into gymnastics and how she’s seen younger gymnasts today train.

“It was more about going back into my own gym, just the work ethic is different compared to when we were doing gymnastics in the [former team coordinator] Márta [Károlyi] era,” she explained. “And I’m not sticking up for Márta or saying what she did was good, I’m just saying it was different. So anyway, sorry for anything that got out of context or seemed hurtful.”