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McKayla Maroney has upped the ante in response to Simone Biles' apparent mockery of MyKayla Skinner following the US women's gymnastics team's big win at the Paris Olympics.
The former artistic gymnast, 28, took to the comments on Biles' Instagram post to seemingly criticise Skinner, who previously claimed that the “depth of the gymnastics team isn't what it used to be.” Biles also appeared to respond to Skinner's comments in the caption of her post, which showed her and her teammates after their win, when she wrote: “Lack of talent, laziness, Olympic champions.”
In her comment, Maroney first congratulated Biles and then jokingly apologized, apparently because her name is similar to Skinner's.
“There’s nothing more iconic than this… She slept with someone and found out I was a dude,” Maroney wrote. “I feel like I need to apologize just to get my first name back.”
Despite her controversial comments about the U.S. team, Skinner has shown her support for American gymnasts following their gold medal win. After Biles posted her apparent comment, Skinner posted a photo of the winning U.S. team from July 30 on her Instagram Story, along with three heart emojis.
Although Skinner didn't have a specific reaction to Biles' post, the decorated Olympian added fuel to the fire of feud rumors. In a post shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, on July 31, Biles wrote, “Oops I got blocked,” leading fans to speculate that the person who blocked her was Skinner.
The speculation seemed to be confirmed by Jordan Chiles, who took a photo from her teammates' phone and revealed that Biles was unable to see any of Skinner's Instagram posts. In the caption of the image, shared on her Instagram post, Chiles wrote: “When she blocks Simone.”
Earlier this month, Skinner went viral when she said the rest of the team didn't have the “talent” level of Olympic champion Biles.
“Other than Simone, I feel like the talent and depth is not what it used to be,” the 2020 Olympic silver medalist on vault said. “You see, obviously, a lot of girls don’t work as hard. Girls just don’t have the work ethic.”
After that, several athletes appeared to criticize Skinner, with Biles writing on Instagram Threads that “not everyone needs a mic and a platform.” Meanwhile, Chiles' mother commented: “Wow. She actually said it out loud and posted it. That's something…”
However, Skinner later took to her Instagram Story to clarify comments she made in a YouTube video. “Hey guys, I just wanted to pop in here real quick, because I know we did the recap on YouTube,” she began explaining in the video, which was shared earlier this month. “And I feel like a lot of you had misinterpreted or misunderstood exactly what I meant or had said.”
The former gymnast went on to clarify that her comments were primarily based on her own experience returning to gymnastics and how she has seen today's younger gymnasts train.
“It was more about going back to my own gym, just the work ethic is different compared to when we did gymnastics at the [former team coordinator] Martha [Károlyi] “I’m not defending Márta or saying what she did was right, I’m just saying it was different. Anyway, I’m sorry for anything that was taken out of context or seemed hurtful. That was never my intention. And seriously, throughout the entire video, I was so excited for the girls and it was so fun to watch.” [the Olympic] “Test and do a live with everyone.”
