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MyKayla Skinner has shown her support for the 2024 USA Gymnastics team following their victory in the women's all-around final on Tuesday, July 30.
The team's gold medal comes after they previously claimed silver in Tokyo, when Simone Biles withdrew from the competition due to a case of “twisties.” At that time, Skinner took her place as an alternate.
Skinner recently posted a photo of the winning team on her Instagram Story with three heart emojis, a show of support that came around the same time Biles also shared an Instagram post of herself and the entire team celebrating their win. “Lack of talent, laziness, Olympic champions,” Biles captioned the post.
The quote appeared to be a criticism of Skinner based on a since-deleted YouTube video where she criticized the current generation of gymnasts for lacking the “work ethic” of previous teams.
“Other than Simone, I feel like the talent and depth isn’t what it used to be,” Skinner said at the time. “Obviously, I noticed a lot of girls don’t work as hard. Girls don’t have the work ethic.”
Skinner also spoke about a shift in approach to how coaches treat gymnasts, adding: “Coaches can’t push athletes, which in some ways is really good, but at the same time, to get to where you need to be in gymnastics, you have to be… a little bit aggressive, a little bit intense.”
Shortly after the video, Skinner apologized for her comments in an Instagram Story video posted on July 3. “I feel like a lot of you misinterpreted or misunderstood exactly what I meant or said,” she told her viewers. “A lot of the things I was talking about weren’t necessarily always 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 to my own gym and the work ethic is different compared to when we were doing gymnastics at Marta [Karolyi, former US coach] was,” he added.
Skinner added that his intentions were never to hurt the feelings of the current Olympic team.
“I’m sorry for anything that came across as out of context or hurtful,” she continued. “Throughout the video, I was so excited for the girls and it was so fun to watch the tryouts and do a live stream with everyone.”
“I love those girls so much and I’m so happy for them,” she concluded. “I would never do anything to make them feel any different. So, I’m sorry if you misunderstood me, that wasn’t my intention at all.”
However, Biles did not appear to accept the apology, as she posted a thread around the same time saying, “Not everyone needs a microphone and a platform.”
After winning the gold medal, Biles explained that the medal “means the world.”
“We’re very excited,” she said. “We’re honored to represent the U.S. every time we step onto a world stage, but achieving that gold and that goal was an incredible feeling.”
“I think we all had something to prove in Tokyo and tonight we did it. It means a lot. This was our goal going in, although we didn’t share it with everyone because it’s just a personal thing we were working on.
“But I think for everyone, that's what we came here to do. And we're very excited to take home that gold medal.”
