Simone Biles has subtly responded to her former USA teammate MyKayla Skinner, who recently criticized the 2024 Olympic gymnastics roster for lacking ‘work ethic.’ Skinner, who won a silver medal on vault at the 2020 Tokyo Games after stepping in for Biles, made these comments in a now-deleted YouTube video.
“Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t like what it used to be,” Skinner, 27, stated, taking aim at the athletes selected to represent Team USA in Paris this summer.
The 2024 roster includes Biles, current all-around Olympic champion Suni Lee, Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles, and Hezly Rivera. Skinner further claimed, “The girls just don’t have the work ethic,” and referenced the US Center for SafeSport, a non-profit organization aimed at reducing sexual abuse of minors and athletes in US Olympic sports.
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Skinner’s comments caused an uproar on social media, leading her to issue an apology, stating her words were taken out of context. However, Biles seemingly responded in a post on Threads without naming Skinner, writing, “not everyone needs a mic and a platform.”
The two athletes have known each other for years, having both represented the USA at the 2014 World Championships in Nanning and the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Despite Biles withdrawing from several events in Tokyo due to the ‘twisties,’ a mental block where gymnasts lose control of their body midair, both gymnasts earned Olympic medals.
Amid the backlash, Skinner explained in an Instagram video last week, “A lot of you guys had misinterpreted or misunderstood exactly what I was meaning or had said. It wasn’t necessarily about the current team, because I love and support all the girls that made it and I’m so proud of them. It was more about going back into my own gym, and the work ethic is different compared to when we were doing gymnastics in the Marta [Karolyi] era. And I’m not sticking up for Marta or saying what she did was good, I’m just saying it was different.”
Biles and her fellow team members are now preparing to compete in Paris, aiming to continue the legacy of excellence that Team USA is known for in gymnastics.
