Team USA Gymnasts and More Back Simone Biles After Apparent MyKayla Skinner Diss: ‘On Periodt’
Simone Biles' teammates and more former USA gymnasts are throwing their support behind the GOAT after Biles defended the team following comments made by MyKayla Skinner.
Biles, 27, seemingly referenced Skinner's eyebrow-raising remarks about the 2024 Team USA gymnastics team while celebrating their gold medal win via Instagram on Tuesday, July 30. "Lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions ????????," Biles captioned a handful of photos from the team final, which showed her holding up the American flag with fellow athletes Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera.
Chiles, 23, took to the comments section to back her teammate, writing, "And that’s on periodt!!"
Lee, 21, reposted Biles' upload via her Instagram Story before commenting, "Put a finger down if simone biles just ended you ????.” Rivera, 16, wrote, “I’m so freaking proud of you.”
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Former Team USA gymnasts subsequently chimed in with their thoughts. "Micdrop," Nastia Liukin, a five-time Olympic medalist, commented. "So fkn proud!!!!!!!!!"
Laurie Hernandez, who competed alongside Biles in the 2016 Rio Olympics, added, "LMAOOOO I LOVE YALL."
Olympian Michelle Kwan gave Biles her seal of approval, writing, "Four letter word for all the haters - G.O.A.T ??!!! Bravo."
Biles' husband, Jonathan Owens, made sure trolls knew who they were dealing with. "F AROUND AND FIND OUT," he commented.
The caption seemingly referenced controversial remarks made by Skinner, 27, before the 2024 Paris Olympics began. In a YouTube video uploaded earlier this month, Skinner alleged the gymnasts representing Team USA at this year's Games didn't have the same "work ethic" as athletes who competed in years prior. (Skinner was an alternate for Team USA in 2016 before competing at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, taking home silver in the vault final.)
Following backlash online, Skinner apologized via her Instagram Story, claiming the comments from her YouTube video were "misunderstood."
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"A lot of the stuff I was talking about wasn't always necessarily about the current team because I love and support all the girls that made it and I'm so proud of them," she said. "It was more about going back into my own gym and the work ethic is different compared to when we were doing gymnastics in the Marta [Karolyi] era."
Karolyi, 81, was the former national team coordinator for USA Gymnastics who enforced strict rules for athletes training at the elite level. The organization cut ties with Marta and her husband, Bela Karolyi, in the wake of the Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal. (In her initial video, Skinner criticized SafeSport, an independent organization aiming to take measures against sexual, physical and emotional abuse in the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic fields.)
Following Tuesday's win, Biles became the most-decorated U.S. Olympic gymnast of all time, solidifying her comeback after she pulled out of the Tokyo Games for mental health reasons. McKayla Maroney, who competed in the 2012 London Olympics, also defended Biles after her historic achievement.
"It doesn't get more iconic than this," she wrote in the comments section of Biles' post, appearing to throw shade at Skinner. "She f'd around n found out fr. Feels like I need to apologize just to redeem my first name."
