What Did MyKayla Skinner Say About U.S. Gymnastics Team, Simone Biles?

The former Olympian's critiques have been the inspiration to plenty of social media digs.

Gymnast MyKayla Skinner and USA gymnast Simone Biles pose for a photo after the US Championships at Dickies Arena. / Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

Simone Biles and the U.S. women's gymnastics team took home gold in the all-around team final in the Paris Games on Tuesday. No one can take that away from them, and they let themselves gloat a little with pointed social media posts in celebration. Several of the social posts seemed to target MyKayla Skinner, who competed with the U.S. team in the 2020 Summer Olympics as Biles's teammate. That team won a silver medal.

After the win, Biles took to social media with an Instagram caption that referenced something Skinner said about the team. It seems to have resulted in Skinner blocking Biles on social media.

At one point, Skinner said that the current Olympians don't have the work ethic of past teams. She later claimed her comments were taken out of context and deleted the YouTube video the comments were in.

“Besides Simone [Biles], I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t like what it used to be. Just notice like, I mean, obviously a lot of girls don’t work as hard. The girls just don’t have the work ethic," Skinner said in her deleted video.

She seemed to imply one of the culprits for the perceived lack of work ethic is the presence of the U.S. Center for SafeSport because coaches are afraid to "get on" athletes for fear of punishment. SafeSport has been in action since 2017 following the Larry Nassar sexual assault trial. It exists to build a "sport community where participants can work and learn together free of emotional, physical and sexual abuse and misconduct."