Simone Biles won gold alongside her teammates in the 2024 Olympics women’s gymnastics team event and used the opportunity to issue the perfect response to MyKayla Skinner’s hateful comments.
Skinner is a fellow gymnast who went to the Tokyo Olympics in the non-nominative spot alongside Team USA. Essentially, she was chosen to represent the U.S. as an individual rather than as a part of the official four-member U.S. women’s gymnastic team. She competed alongside current Olympic athletes Biles, Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles, and Jade Carey, taking Biles’ spot in the vault final after Biles withdrew from the event.
However, following the 2020 Olympics, she retired from gymnastics. Given that she’s not a part of the 2024 Paris Olympics or even on the gymnastics scene anymore, it was very strange when she suddenly posted a YouTube video bashing this year’s team.
What did MyKayla Skinner say about this year’s Olympic team?
Skinner recently posted a YouTube video in which she made several hateful comments about the current Olympic women’s gymnastics competitors. Although she has since deleted the video, her most appalling comments have continued circulating on social media. Skinner essentially went on a rant about how this year’s team is lazy and untalented. She stated, “Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t what it used to be.” The former gymnast claimed to have observed that the competitors “just don’t have the work ethic” they had when she was on the team.
According to Skinner, the Olympics is easy for Team USA this year because one of its biggest competitors, Russia, is banned from the competition. She then said that it was “crazy” that some of the women fell during their exceedingly difficult all-around routines and still made top places. Perhaps her most egregious statement was when she claimed that Safesport is why this year’s athletes are supposedly lazy. For those unaware of SafeSport, it’s an organization that has established guidelines, resources, and education to prevent sexual abuse of athletes in the Olympics.
Part of what prompted the establishment of Safesport was the horrific Larry Nassar abuse scandal. Nassar was the team doctor for the U.S. women’s national gymnastics team, who assaulted hundreds of female athletes under the guise of medical care. Biles is one current Olympic athlete who has come forward as a survivor of Nassar’s abuse. Biles and every athlete who showed immense bravery in coming forward deserve credit for establishing these changes to protect generations of future athletes. Now, though, Skinner is saying these significant changes are just a pass for athletes to be lazy.
Simone Biles shuts Skinner down with a seven-word caption
It’s difficult to imagine how hurtful Skinner’s comments were to this year’s team. These women have worked and trained their entire lives for this one competition and have been stunning the whole world with their performances. On top of the pressure of performing, though, they have to deal with their ex-teammate telling the world that they’re lazy and talentless. Although she excluded Biles from the lazy and talentless comments, considering Biles was subjected to horrific pressure and scrutiny from the public in the last Olympics, it must’ve been heartbreaking for her to see her teammates, the youngest of whom is just 16, now facing similar hateful attacks.
Fortunately, the whole team had the best response to Skinner: taking home the gold medal in the women’s gymnastics team event. The win made Biles the most decorated U.S. female gymnast in history and pushed the U.S. ahead of Italy in its gold medal wins this year. Obviously, the win made Skinner look pretty silly. Imagine saying the team that won the U.S. its fourth gold medal in the Olympics this year is lazy and untalented. However, in case anyone missed the point, Biles shared several photos of her team celebrating their victory with the caption, “lack of talent, lazy, Olympic champions. us.”
The perfect, subtle shade effectively ended the whole ordeal, as it’s unlikely Skinner is going to repeat her “lazy” comments anytime soon. In the comments, Biles and her team received an outpouring of support, with fellow Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney writing, “It doesn’t get more iconic than this.. She f’d around n found out fr. Feels like I need to apologize just to redeem my first name.” Nastia Lukin, Laurie Hernandez, Dominique Moceanu, and Stephen Nedoroscik were just a few other athletes who all chimed in to congratulate Biles and echo the sentiment of her caption.
Later, Biles shared an update, writing that she had been blocked. Although she didn’t name Skinner, it’s not difficult to guess whom she was referring to.
As many commenters pointed out, Skinner tried to be a hater against some of the most talented female athletes in the world and found out what happens when one makes such an ill-informed and bitter decision. Between Bob Ballard’s removal and Biles effectively putting Skinner to shame, it seems the world as a whole is finally learning what happens when you mess with women athletes.
Published: Jul 31, 2024 03:45 pm