Blocked by ex-teammate: Simone Biles and MyKayla Skinner drama explained

The ex-gymnast has a LOT to say about team USA

4 months ago

Simone Biles definitely doesn’t need any petty dramas to be relevant right now: She’s just been announced as the most awarded US gymnast in history. However, ex-gymnast MyKayla Skinner seems to seems to have taken an issue with the entire team who are competing this year for some reason. The Simone Biles/MyKayla Skinner tea has caused a real problem for Skinner, but hasn’t made a dent in team USA’s success. Here’s a rundown of exactly what happened.

Who is MyKayla Skinner?

MyKayla was part of the US gymnastics team in 2020. Her and the team took home a silver medal from Tokyo, but she has since retired from gymnastics and has started a family with her husband Jonas Harmer.

On Tuesday, Biles and the US gymnastics team took home a gold medal, which must have felt amazing for Simone who pulled out of most of the Tokyo 2020 competitions due to having the twisties: A dangerous mental health condition that gymnasts experience where they lose their perception of their body while in the air. It can lead to very serious injuries. This is where Skinner comes in. As the team alternate, she took Simone’s place and they went on to win silver.

Her controversial YouTube video

Following the US Gymnastic Olympic Team Trials in Minnesota in July, Skinner posted a video on YouTube which claimed that the 2024 gymnasts have “no work ethic” like the team who came before them, which is basically a huge dig at Simone, who was notably not present in 2020.

She went on to say: “Besides Simone I feel like the talent and the depth isn’t what it used to be, I just noticed, obviously, a lot of girls don’t work as hard,” which was pretty scathing, and the video has now been deleted.

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She also noted a shift in how coaches treat the gymnasts: “Coaches can’t get on athletes which in some ways is really good but at the same time, to get to where you need to be in gymnastics you do have to be a little aggressive.”

Simone’s response

Simone had a great clapback to Skinner’s comments: She posted on Threads: “Not everyone needs a mic and a platform.” Too true Simone.

via Threads

Apology number one (flop)

Skinner’s video made people on X MAD (although it really doesn’t take a lot to do that). In an Instagram story, Skinner tried to clarify her comments by saying “I feel like a lot of you guys had misinterpreted or misunderstood exactly what I was meaning or had said.

“A lot of the stuff that I was talking about wasn’t always necessarily about the current team, because I love and support all the girls that made it and I’m so proud of them.” What a convenient turn of events.

Apology number two (still a flop)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by MyKayla Skinner (Harmer) (@mykaylaskinner2016)

She ended up posting a full apology on her Instagram feed after fans still weren’t satisfied. Although, we don’t know how her followers reacted to this post because she’s turned off comments throughout her entire Instagram.

Simone’s iconic clapback

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Simone Biles (@simonebiles)

The apology evidently didn’t faze Simone and the rest of team USA: She took to Instagram after her win with a caption that read: “Lack of talent, lazy, Olympic champions.” If Skinner wasn’t eating her words then, she sure is now.

Funnily enough, another gymnast named McKayla Maroney poked fun at Skinner’s comments and made a joke about their similar names, and commented under Biles’s post: “It doesn’t get more iconic than this.. She f’d around and found out fr. Feels like I need to apologise just to redeem my first name.” Simone’s post currently has 3.5 million likes on Instagram, so it’s safe to say the support for her is overwhelming.

From besties to BLOCKED

But what about Skinner? Well, after Simone’s post, there wasn’t a lot she could do to come back from that. Instead of taking a high road, or admitting defeat, she allegedly just blocked her on Instagram.