Simone Biles appeared to take a shot at a former teammate after she and the United States women’s gymnastics team captured a gold medal at the Summer Olympics in Paris on Tuesday night.
Biles and teammates Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera won the gold medal in the women’s gymnastics team event. After the excellent showing, Biles celebrated on Instagram with a post that was clearly aimed at Team USA’s critics.
“lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions,” Biles wrote as a caption for her post.
The message appeared to be directed at former U.S. women’s gymnast MyKayla Skinner, who was teammates with Biles at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Leading up to the Paris Olympics, Skinner shared some of her thoughts on this year’s U.S. team in a video on YouTube. The former silver medalist questioned whether Team USA has enough “work ethic” outside of Biles.
“Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t what it used to be. … The girls just don’t have the work ethic,” Skinner said.
Part 1: The gymnastics community cannot let these comments to be swept under the rug. I will be as respectful as possible to @mykaylaskinner but instead of engaging in meaningful conversation she blocks anyone who holds her accountable for her words. pic.twitter.com/Y69pwCxnUG
— Riley (@gymguyri) July 3, 2024
Most people agree that Biles’ social media post was directed toward Skinner.
Skinner backed down from her comments days after making them and said they were “misinterpreted,” but it seems like Biles took them to heart. The same can be said for former Olympic gold medalist McKayla Maroney, who commented on Biles’ post with a far more blatant swipe at Skinner.
“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,” Maroney wrote.
OH MY GOD MCKAYLA pic.twitter.com/1ZJHXEAmAY
— jade (@mccuskerights) July 31, 2024
Sometimes all a team needs for added motivation is a common villain, and it looks like Skinner took on that role for Biles and company.
