When Simone Biles posted a congratulatory message to the US women’s gymnastics team following their big win on July 30, her caption might have seemed a little surprising to folks not in the know. The text? “[L]ack of talent, lazy, olympic champions,” followed by a string of emojis.
To be clear: After the day Team USA had—dominating in the team finals to clinch their first team gold since 2016—Biles certainly was not calling out teammates Suni Lee, Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles, and Hezly Rivera (or herself for slacking.
Instead, the caption was seemingly an epic clapback at a comment made by former Olympic teammate MyKayla Skinner.
Confused? We’re here to clarify. (Hint: It all started with a YouTube video.)
Who is MyKayla Skinner?
Skinner, a 27-year-old Arizona native, is a former elite gymnast. She competed alongside Biles at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games in 2021—not as a member of the five-person team, but as an individual event specialist—and went on to win a silver medal in the vault. She has since retired from gymnastics and runs a YouTube channel that documents her transition away from professional sports.
So what’s this about a feud?!
Skinner’s “feud” (as lots of outlets are calling it) with the Team USA gymnastics team started earlier this summer. In a since-deleted YouTube video after the Olympic team selection on June 30, Skinner threw some not-so-subtle shade at the current crop of gymnasts, according to CNN.
“Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t like what it used to be,” she said in the video, CNN reported. “A lot of girls don’t work as hard,” she added. “The girls just don’t have the work ethic.”
Understandably, Skinner’s comments weren’t, um, too well-received. “[N]ot everyone needs a mic and a platform,” Biles wrote in a July 3 post on Threads that racked up more than 18,000 likes.
Initially, Skinner defended herself, according to CNN. In an Instagram Story video, she claimed that she had been “misinterpreted or misunderstood.” Later on, however, she changed course, taking to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, to make a public apology.
In a July 6 statement addressed to “Team USA and our gymnastics community,” Skinner wrote that she wanted to “take full responsibility for what I said.” “It was not my intention to offend or disrespect any of the athletes or to take away from their hard work,” she added.
Did any other gymnasts have something to say?
You bet—and they included several other former and current Team USA gymnasts, all of whom commented on Biles’s July 30 Instagram post.
“[I]’m so freaking proud of you,” 16-year-old Hezly Rivera, the youngest member of the Paris women’s gymnastics team, wrote.
And Laurie Hernandez, who competed alongside Biles at the 2016 Rio Games and is currently a commentator for Paris Olympics coverage, also chimed in, writing, “LMAOOOO I LOVE YALL.”
Other commenters referenced the so-called “feud” more explicitly.