MyKayla Skinner Says She's 'Heartbroken' Over Simone Biles' Clapback but Wants to 'Move on and Move Forward'

Mar. 15, 2025

Simone Biles (left) and MyKayla Skinner.Photo:Tim Clayton/Corbis/Getty; Donald Miralle /Sports Illustrated/Getty

Tim Clayton/Corbis/Getty; Donald Miralle /Sports Illustrated/Getty

Skinner, 27, addressed the caption that Biles posted on Instagramseemingly shading herwith a lengthy video posted to her own account on Tuesday, Aug. 6, in which she made a direct plea to Biles, 27, to ask her followers to stop cyberbullying Skinner and her family.

Skinner continued, saying that if Biles “truly believes” that Skinner called the team “lazy and lacking talent,” as Biles implied in her Instagram caption, then she is “really heartbroken over it.”

“To Simone, I am asking you directly and publicly 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. 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. 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.”

Simone Biles, Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles, Suni Lee and Hezly Rivera show off their gold medals on July 30.Jean Catuffe/Getty

Jean Catuffe/Getty

Elsewhere in her video, Skinner said she’d hoped the matter “wouldn’t need to be revisited,” but felt the need to speak out after the amount of cyberbullying she and her loved ones faced. “I’m just asking for it to stop for the sake of my family because enough is enough,” she said.

Skinner also said she takes full “responsibility for poorly articulating the point I was trying to make,” and that causing harm or offending Team USA was “the last thing I wanted.”

“I know these women are incredible — the very best of the best — and almost all of them are my former teammates who I have enjoyed very much cheering on the last few years,” said Skinner, who competed in Tokyo in 2021 alongside Biles, Chiles, 23, and Lee, 21.

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In her first apology statement, Skinner said it was “not my intention to offend or disrespect any of the athletes or to take away from their hard work.”

In the video at hand, Skinner critiqued the gymnasts' “work ethic” and said “a lot of girls don’t work as hard.”

The next day, Biles and Chiles said on X (formerly known as Twitter) and Instagram, respectively, that Skinner had blocked Biles on Instagram.

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source: people.com