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Simone Biles took a stinging shot at a former USA teammate after delivering team all-around gold at the Paris Olympics.
MyKayla Skinner, an alternative for the United States at the Rio 2016 Games, where Biles won her first Olympic gold medals, had criticised the current generation of gymnasts for lacking the “work ethic” of past teams.
Skinner had claimed, in a now-deleted YouTube video, that “besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t like what it used to be”.
She then added that “the girls just don’t have the work ethic [that gymnasts of her time once did]”.
But Biles, winning her fifth Olympic gold medal in helping the women’s gymnastics team to the team title at the 2024 Paris Olympics, had a witty response on social media.
“Lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions,” Biles wrote with a photo alongside teammates Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera lifting the American flag.
Skinner took Biles’s place in the vault final at Tokyo 2020 following her withdrawal after suffering from the “twisties,” eventually winning silver.
Skinner also spoke about a shift in approach for how coaches treat gymnasts, adding: “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, a little intense.”
Biles said at the time on Threads that “not everyone needs a mic and a platform”, before Skinner clarified her comments, maintaining that they had been “misinterpreted” and “misunderstood”.
She said: “A lot of the stuff 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.
“It was more about going back into my own gym and the work ethic is different compared to when we were doing gymnastics in the Marta [Karolyi, former US coach] era.”
Biles admitted she felt the USA had something to prove from Tokyo and that gold “means the world”.
“We’re super excited,” she said. “We’re honoured to represent the US every time we get on a world stage, but accomplishing that gold and that goal was just an amazing feeling.
“I think we all had something to prove from Tokyo and tonight we did just that. It means the world. This was our goal going in, even though we didn’t share it with everybody because it’s just a personal thing that we were working on.
“But I think for everybody, it’s what we came here to do. And we’re super excited to walk away with that gold medal.”
