MyKayla Skinner has appealed to Simone Biles directly for help, after facing a wave of cyberbullying.
Following Olympic gymnastics drama last week, Skinner took to Instagram to tell her side of the story on Tuesday.
In a video, the former Olympian said, "I sincerely hoped that this topic wouldn't need to be revisited but unfortunately things have really gotten out of hand lately. And it's one thing to disagree with me regarding something I have said or a point I was trying to make, but it's something else entirely when that turns into cyberbullying or even worse."
She continued, "Watching people cheer on the bullying—which has led to threats of physical harm to me, my husband and our daughter—is disgusting. So please, at this point, I'm just asking for it to just stop for the sake of my family because enough is enough."
Skinner went on to acknowledge the comments she made that led to the whole controversy, explaining that she takes "100 percent responsibility for poorly articulating the point I was trying to make."
In a since-deleted YouTube video posted in June, Skinner said of Team USA, "Besides Simone [Biles] , 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."
This predictably caused an uproar online, as people rushed to defend Biles, as well as Hezly Rivera, Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles, and Jade Carey. Soon afterwards, Skinner posted a video and a written apology on Instagram and, in this latest post, she also claimed that she had reached out directly to all five members of the Olympic team. She said that only Biles responded, telling her she was proud of her.
But Skinner's comments resurfaced last week when Team USA won gold in the women's artistic team all-around in Paris, and Biles posted a celebratory picture on Instagram with the caption, "lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions," which was widely understood as a thinly veiled reference to Skinner's YouTube video.
Shortly afterwards, Biles tweeted, "oop I’ve been blocked," which again, most people interpreted as referencing Skinner .
In her new video, Skinner said, "You guys can imagine my surprise last week when I was celebrating our team winning gold just to see this brought up all over again by a caption on an Instagram post."
She continued, "If Simone truly believes that I called our team lazy and lacking talent and if that's really how she feels, I am really heartbroken over it. But not just heartbroken because it isn't what I feel or even what I previously said, but heartbroken because Simone's latest post and others that followed it fueled another wave of hateful comments, DMs, articles and emails. Hate that includes death threats to me, my family, and even my agent. My family and my friends don't deserve to be caught in the crossfire here. They've done nothing."
Skinner ended the video by appealing directly to her former teammate: "To Simone, I am asking you directly and publicly to please put a stop to this," she said. "Please ask your followers to stop. You have been an incredible champion for mental health awareness and a lot of people need your help now.
"We've been hurt and attacked in ways that I am certain you never intended. Your performance, the team's performance and the Olympics in general should be a time that we support one another and lift each other and our country up."
Skinner competed in the Olympics alongside Biles in both 2016 and 2021.
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