MyKayla Skinner is pleading for Simon Biles to “put a stop” to the cyberbullying she’s faced following controversial remarks she made about the current U.S. women’s gymnastics team.
The former Olympic gymnast took to her Instagram on Tuesday, calling for Biles to ask her followers on social media to stop spreading hate and making threats amid their alleged feud.
“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,” Skinner said in a lengthy 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.”
Skinner, who was the 2020 Tokyo Olympic vault silver medalist, faced backlash ahead of the 2024 Olympics due to comments she made about some of her former teammates, who have been competing at the Paris Games for the last few weeks.
“Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t what it used to be,” Skinner said in a YouTube video last month. “I mean, obviously, a lot of girls just don’t work as hard. The girls just don’t have the work ethic.”
In response, Biles seemingly referenced the former athlete’s remarks in her Instagram post celebrating the U.S. team’s victory. “Lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions,” she wrote in the caption.
Skinner noted that she personally messaged each of the women on the U.S. gymnastics team, however, she said Biles was the only one who responded and told her that she was proud of her. That’s why she was “surprised” by the Olympic gold medalist’s Instagram caption.
“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,” Skinner said. “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 concluded her video with a message directed at Biles: “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.”