MyKayla Skinner, who filled in for Simone Biles and won a vault silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, faced an apparent clapback from Biles one month after she criticized the depth, work ethic and talent of the current U.S. team.
Upon winning the gold medal in Tuesday’s team final, Biles posted a photo to Instagram with the caption “lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions,” which appeared to be a reference to controversial comments Skinner made during the U.S. Olympic trials.
Now, Skinner has reportedly blocked Biles on social media, according to an Instagram story posted by newly minted gold medalist Jordan Chiles and a post on X by Biles.
Skinner did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a YouTube video that has since been deleted, Skinner shared her live reactions to the 2024 Olympic Gymnastics Trials in June, when the team that won gold Tuesday was named.
“I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t what it used to be … obviously, a lot of the girls don’t work as hard,” she said in the video.
Though she said Biles was an exception to that observation, Skinner faced swift criticism for disparaging the work ethic of the current team and apologized on social media.
“I want to formally apologize to Team USA and our gymnastic community for my comments during my recent YouTube episodes,” Skinner said on X. “It was not my intention to offend or disrespect any of the athletes or to take away from their hard work.”
She also claimed in the deleted video that SafeSport, an organization forged to prevent abuse in wake of the Larry Nassar scandal, was partly responsible for what she described as a decline in the coaching quality in the sport, though she also acknowledged positive aspects of its implementation.
Coaches “have to be really careful about what they say,” Skinner said. “Which in some ways is really good, but at the same time, to get where you need to be in gymnastics, you have to be … a little aggressive and a little intense.”
Biles, who has said she is among the survivors of Nassar’s abuse, appeared to respond to Skinner’s comments early this month, saying “not everyone needs a mic and a platform” in a post on Threads. She and other members of the national team unfollowed Skinner on Instagram in the days after her comments.
Nassar, the disgraced doctor for the U.S. women’s gymnastics team, was convicted of molesting hundreds of young girls and sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison.
Biles testified before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in 2021 about the FBI’s mishandling of the Nassar case. The Justice Department later agreed to pay over $138 million to victims of Nassar and apologized for the FBI’s failure to follow through on early reports of abuse.
Her Instagram post Tuesday immediately attracted support in the comments section from her fellow U.S. Olympic gymnasts, including Suni Lee, McKayla Maroney, Laurie Hernandez and Nastia Liukin.
“It doesn’t get more iconic than this … Feels like I need to apologize just to redeem my first name,” said Maroney, who is a two-time Olympic medalist and was among the first Olympic gymnasts to publicly accuse Nassar of abuse.
She and Skinner have the same first name, though they spell it differently.
While the apparent feud with Biles has been particularly high-profile, Skinner also faced criticism in 2016 for sharing an altered picture on social media, replacing the face of 2012 Olympic all-around champion Gabby Douglas with her own. She was an alternate for the 2016 Olympic team and was slammed for sharing the post, which some fans described as being racist.
Skinner traveled to Tokyo as an individual competitor for the U.S., meaning she was not a part of the Olympic team that won silver in 2021. She initially did not qualify for any Tokyo finals, but after Biles withdrew from the vault final because of “the twisties,” Skinner took her place and earned a silver medal.
She retired from gymnastics after the Tokyo Olympics and gave birth to her daughter, Charlotte, in September.
