Yahoo News Simone Biles Says It Was “Important” for Her to Stand up for Her Olympic Teammates
The 2024 Paris Olympics are in full swing, and Team USA is already making history and breaking a ton of records. Case in point: The women’s rugby team captured their first-ever Olympic medal in rugby sevens during a match against Australia on July 30, and Simone Biles became the most decorated U.S. gymnast of all time (!!!) after she and her teammates took home the gold at the women’s gymnastics team final.
Simone celebrated the historic moment on Instagram by posting a pic with Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey, and Hezly Rivera, writing, “Lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions ❤️🥇🇺🇸.” Fans immediately took notice of Simone’s 👀 caption, tying it back to comments her former teammate, MyKayla Skinner, made about the lack of work ethic in gymnastics. Since Simone’s post, Suni Lee and 2012 Fierce Five gymnast McKayla Maroney have entered the chat too. 😵💫
Currently spiraling over all of this sudden gymnastics drama? Us too—which is why we did a deep dive on all the deets.
July 3, 2024
In a since-deleted YouTube video, MyKayla shared her reaction to the gymnastics trials for Team USA, saying, “Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t like what it used to be.”
“A lot of girls don't work as hard....The girls just don’t have the work ethic,” she continued in the video, per E! News. MyKayla also claimed that the U.S. Center for SafeSport, a nonprofit which helps end abuse in athletics, played a part in the “lack of effort” from the athletes. “Like, coaches can’t get on athletes and they have to be really careful what they say,” she said. “Which, in some ways is really good, but at the same time, to get to where you need to be in gymnastics you do have to be, I feel, like, a little aggressive and a little intense.”
On July 3, MyKayla took to her Instagram Stories to explain her perspective and apologize for her comments. Per People, the Olympic gymnast said “a lot of the stuff” she talked about in her YouTube video “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.”
“It was more about going back into my own gym, just the work ethic is different compared to when we were doing gymnastics in the Márta era. And I’m not sticking up for Márta or saying what she did was good, I’m just saying it was different,” she said, clarifying that she was referencing the pressure she experienced while being coached by Márta Károlyi. “So, anyway, sorry for anything that got out of context or seemed hurtful. That is never my intention. And seriously, throughout the video, I was so pumped for the girls, and it was so fun watching trials and doing a live with everybody.”
She also penned a lengthy apology on Instagram, which was posted ahead of the Olympics on July 3. “I want to formally apologize to Team USA and to our gymnastic community for my comments during my recent YouTube episodes of the gymnastics olympic trials. It was not my intention to offend or disrespect any of the athletes or to take away from their hard work. Your hard work and dedication has paid off and I congratulate each and every one of you,” she wrote in part.“I take full responsibility for what I said and I deeply apologize. It is most important to me that the sport I love continue down the path of healing and ensures a positive environment for all,” she finished, wishing the team luck in Paris.
July 30, 2024
As previously mentioned, Simone posted about Team USA’s huge win at the 2024 Paris Olympics, writing, “Lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions ❤️🥇🇺🇸.” Fans picked up on the seemingly shady caption, theorizing that it could potentially be a clapback at MyKayla’s comments from her YouTube video.
Suni Lee—who competed alongside Simone—also tapped into the conversation with a comment on Simone’s celebratory post. “Put a finger down if Simone Biles just ended you 🖐🏼,” the gold medalist wrote while men’s gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik added, “Caption goes crazy 😭, congratulations!! 🐐🇺🇸🦅.”
2012 Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney—not to be confused with Skinner—also left a comment and referenced Team USA’s current nickname, F Around and Find Out. “It doesn’t get more iconic than this. She f’d around ’n found out fr,” the Fierce Five member wrote. “Feels like I need to apologize just to redeem my first name.”
After Team USA’s gold-medal-winning performance at the team All-Around final, MyKayla posted a pic of Simone, Suni, Jordan, Jade, and Hezly on her Instagram Stories with a series of heart emojis.
It seemed like there were no hard feelings until...
July 31, 2024
According to Jordan Chiles’s Instagram Stories on July 31, MyKayla blocked Simone on Instagram after she posted about Team USA’s Olympic win. “When she blocks Simone,” Jordan wrote with a pic of her teammate’s phone showing MyKayla’s profile. 😬
Simone also posted, “Oop I’ve been blocked 👀🫢😂.”
August 6, 2024
In a lengthy video posted to Instagram on August 6, MyKayla opened up about all the drama that unraveled since Team USA won big at the 2024 Paris Olympics. “I sincerely hoped that this topic wouldn’t need to be revisited, but unfortunately things have really gotten out of hand lately. And it’s one thing to disagree with me regarding something I have said or a point I was trying to make, but it’s something else entirely when that turns into cyberbullying or even worse,” MyKayla started her video. “Watching people cheer on the bullying—which has led to threats of physical harm to me my husband and our daughter—is disgusting. So please at this point, I’m just asking for it to stop for the sake of my family because enough is enough.”
She continued, “So why I’m here is because about four weeks ago, I made a comment about work ethic and what seems to be taking pace with the rising generation. To be totally clear, I take 100 percent responsibility for poorly articulating the point I was trying to make and the last thing I wanted was to cause harm or offend our U.S. Olympic team. 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.”
MyKayla also revealed that she had messaged all the Team USA gymnasts individually and that Simone was the only one to respond to her, saying she was “proud” of her former teammate for reaching out.
“I posted a video apology on Instagram and I followed up with a written apology and I sent individual messages to each of the women on the team,” MyKayla dished. “Only Simone had responded and she told me that she was proud of me. 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. If Simone truly believes that I called our team lazy and lacking talent and if that’s really how she feels, I am really heartbroken over it. But not just heartbroken because it isn’t what I feel or even how I previously said, but because Simone’s latest post and others that followed it fueled another wave of hateful comments, DMs, articles and emails. Hate that includes death threats to me my family and even my agent. My family and my friends don’t deserve to be caught in the crossfire here. They’ve done nothing.”
She then directly addressed Simone in the clip, asking her to put a stop to all the hate and bullying she’s received online since her Instagram post. “To 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. We’ve been 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.”
*Also* August 6, 2024
During an interview with People, Simone said that it was "important" for her to stand up for her teammates. "It's important because you have to teach them to use their voices," she told the publication. "And if not, you're a voice for the voiceless, which is okay."
She also opened up about how her role as "team lead" is taken *very* seriously. "I just felt like it was right in that moment to stand up for them, because they're so young and they haven't fully stood in their power yet," she explained.
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