Retired American Olympic gymnast MyKayla Skinner posted a video on Instagram pleading with Simone Biles to ask her fanbase to stop cyberbullying her and her loved ones.
This unexpected saga between the former teammates started in June, when Skinner said the new generation of gymnasts doesn’t seem to be as hard working as the previous generations. Biles appeared to clap back after the United States took the artistic team all-around gold medal by posting a picture with the caption “lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions.”
In the video she posted on Tuesday, Skinner said Biles’ post seemed to have ignited a whole new wave of hate comments. She said things have gone too far because besides cyberbullying, she and her loved ones have received death threats.
“To Simone, I am asking you directly to please put a stop to this,” Skinner said. “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 hurt and attacked In ways that I’m certain you never intended.”
In the same video, Skinner expressed her disappointment with how far this situation has gone. She said she takes 100% responsibility for “poorly articulating” the point she was trying to make in June because she never intended to hurt anyone. However, she said she felt blindsided by Biles’ Instagram caption because she thought everything had been resolved between them.
Skinner said that besides posting an apology video on social media, she followed up with a written apology and individual messages to each of the members of Team USA: Biles, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey, Suni Lee and Hezly Rivera. Biles replied to her, which made Skinner feel there was no bad blood between them.
“Only Simone had responded and she told me that she was proud of me,” Skinner said. “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.”
Skinner added that she is “really heartbroken” if Biles truly believes she meant to call the members of Team USA “lazy and lacking talent.” After posting the video on Tuesday, Skinner said she just wants to move on from this and will be taking a social media break.
“Your performance, the team’s performance and the Olympics in general should be a time that we support one another and lift each and our country up,” Skinner said. “I love our country and I love our team. And I hope that we can move on and move forward and cheer on the rest of our teammates and athletes together.”
