MyKayla Skinner Wants Simone Biles’ Help After Social Media Hate

The gymnastics competition at the 2024 Paris Olympics has come to an end, and yet the drama surrounding MyKayla Skinner still isn’t over. On Aug. 6, Skinner took to Instagram responding to Simone Biles’ pointed Instagram caption from a few days prior. Now, Skinner is asking for her former teammate’s help as she deals with social media hate.

ICYMI, the back-and-forth between Skinner and Biles started when Skinner criticized the 2024 Olympic team’s work ethic and skill. “Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t like what it used to be,” Skinner said in a since-deleted YouTube video, per CNN. “A lot of girls don’t work as hard. The girls just don’t have the work ethic.”

Then, on July 30, Biles seemingly called out Skinner in an Instagram post celebrating Team USA’s gold medal win. “lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions ❤️🥇🇺🇸,” she captioned the post. Afterward, Skinner blocked Biles.

Apparently, since then, Skinner has been receiving a lot of hate on social, prompting her to address the subject again. “I sincerely hoped that this topic wouldn’t need to be revisited but unfortunately things have really gotten out of hand lately. And it’s one thing to disagree with me regarding something I have said or a point I was trying to make, but it’s something else entirely when that turns into cyber bullying or even worse,” Skinner said in her IG post.

“Watching people cheer on the bullying — which has led to threats of physical harm to me my husband and our daughter — is disgusting. So please at this point, I’m just asking for it to stop for the sake of my family because enough is enough,” she continued.

Skinner then explained her perspective on what went down. “About four weeks ago, I made a comment about work ethic and what seems to be taking place with the rising generation. 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.” She added that the team was “the very best of the best.”

“I posted a video apology on Instagram and I followed up with a written apology, and I sent individual messages to each of the women on the team,” she shared. “Only Simone had responded and she told me that she was proud of me.”

According to Skinner, this situation made it all the more surprising when Biles referenced her in her Instagram caption. “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. 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,” she said.

Skinner said that she thought Biles’ caption “fueled another wave of hateful comments, DMs, articles, and emails.” Per her, “death threats” were even made to her family and her agent.

Skinner then addressed Biles directly: “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 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.”