Simone Biles seems to be turning out to be quite a mysterious person. After her Olympic triumph, the critics are finding it hard to fathom how she is able to compete at the top level. Likewise, her haters too are getting caught off guard. Biles, otherwise known to have a bubbly personality, loves her teammates a lot. This could be seen from her motherly behavior with the likes of Suni Lee and Jordan Chiles.
During Paris, when Lee had a fall from the parallel bars, Biles was seen immediately rushing to comfort her. Similarly, after Chiles won her individual bronze medal, it was Biles who jumped up and cheered the most. Thus, it is only imaginable that the G.O.A.T. would be enraged if her teammates were being dishonored by any means. Taking a probable dig at one such troll, Biles has recently had the social media riled up.
It has just been days since Simone Biles finished with her Gold Over America Tour. Now, with some free time to spare, the gymnastics legend is having some fun. In a recent Instagram update, Biles uploaded a picture of a restaurant menu. However, she wrote, “F*** AROUND AND FIND OUT!” This could be a sly dig at MyKayla Skinner; however, there is no confirmation about the same. Now, for the unversed, this phrase is directed toward the former Olympian, MyKayla Skinner.
Skinner, who was Simone Biles’ companion in Rio, had one of the bizarre outbursts before Paris. In a now-deleted YouTube video, Skinner mentioned that the women’s gymnastics team named for Paris had below-par athletes barring Simone Biles. She said, “But besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t what it used to be. I mean, obviously, a lot of girls don’t work as hard. The girls just don’t have the work ethic.”
Skinner further went on to state that due to the SafeSport norms, the coaches cannot be as strict as before. This has resulted in a serious degradation of the quality of gymnastics. She also opined that it was sometimes necessary for the coaches to be a little aggressive for the athletes to be more credible.
Such a statement received instant heat as Skinner was forced to take down the video. Taking a dig at Skinner, Simone Biles decided to name the 2024 women’s gymnastics side, ‘F Around And Find Out.’ She later changed it to ‘Golden Girls.’ Meanwhile, the social digs from Biles were so brutal at times that MyKayla Skinner had to publicly ask the G.O.A.T. to stop attacking her.
MyKayla Skinner calls for sympathy from Simone Biles
Amid the thrill of victory at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where Simone Biles kept on adding gold to her legacy, an unexpected twist emerged. Moments after clinching the team medal in Paris, Biles posted on Instagram, seeming to respond to past critiques from former teammate MyKayla Skinner. The caption of the post read, “lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions ❤️🥇🇺🇸.” And it appeared to be a sarcastic reference to Skinner’s earlier remarks on the Olympic team’s “lack of talent” and “laziness.” After attaining their champion status, Biles’ Instagram caption reignited the controversy around Skinner’s earlier remarks about Team USA’s work ethic.
Fans did not take long to mark the post as an unmistakable dig at Skinner, who had previously claimed in a YouTube video that today’s gymnasts don’t “work as hard” and lack the depth of talent seen in earlier years. And no sooner did the post land on social media than Skinner became the center of attraction and trolls yet again. Following this incident, Skinner immediately took to Instagram to address the backlash, revealing that she and her family had been targets of cyberbullying. In an emotional video, Skinner appealed to Biles directly, asking her to intervene and stop the drama from escalating further.
MyKayla Skinner further pointed out how Biles has always been an advocate for mental health. She highlighted how she hoped that Biles would understand the situation that her former teammate has been dealing with. Skinner mentioned how her comments and intention behind those words of hers were misinterpreted.