MyKayla Skinner posted a video to her Instagram today sharing her experience
Simone Biles’ ex-teammate MyKayla Skinner has spoken out after the Olympic gold-medalist seemingly threw shade at her on Instagram a few weeks ago.
Following Team USA’s gold win at the Olympics’ group final on July 30, Biles celebrated the historical feat with an Instagram post and a sly caption that’s largely speculated to have been a dig toward Skinner.
Underneath a carousel of group photos of Team USA, Biles captioned the post: “Lack of talent, lazy, Olympic champions.”
Based on the comments, many seemed to understand Biles’ caption as a reference to a since-deleted YouTube video posted by Skinner in June where she criticized the members of Team USA being sent to the Paris Olympics.
“Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t like what it used to be,” Skinner says in the deleted video.
“Just notice like, I mean, obviously a lot of girls don’t work as hard. The girls just don’t have the work ethic,” she adds.
Since Biles’ post, clips from Skinner’s deleted YouTube video have gone viral online with fans pouring in to weigh their thoughts on the situation.
Although Skinner initially apologized for the video on July 3, she’s since posted a video to her Instagram sharing that she’s been receiving ‘death threats’ and ‘hateful comments’ and has asked Biles to address the issue with her fans.
“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,” Skinner says in the video.
“[My family and I] have been hurt and attacked in ways that I am certain you never intended,” she adds.
More to come.
