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New York Post
Simone Biles felt it was ‘right’ to call out MyKayla Skinner before ex-teammate’s ‘death threats’ alarm
By Bridget Reilly,
8 hours ago
Simone Biles does not regret calling out MyKayla Skinner in defense of her current Team USA teammates after their impressive performance at the Paris Olympics.
The US’ most decorated gymnast said she believes it was the right move before Skinner, who was Biles’ former teammate in the 2021 Tokyo Games, made a plea to Biles to tell her social media followers to stop sending her hate comments.
“It’s important because you have to teach them to use their voices,” Biles told People on Tuesday. “And if not, you’re a voice for the voiceless, which is okay.
“I just felt like it was right in that moment to stand up for them, because they’re so young and they haven’t fully stood in their power yet.”
Simone Biles of Team United States competes in the Artistic Gymnastics Women’s Floor Exercise Final on day ten of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Bercy Arena on August 05, 2024 in Paris, France. Getty Images
Skinner, who retired from gymnastics three years ago after winning a silver medal in Tokyo, claimed that the team of women were getting “lazy.”
“Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t like what it used to be. Just notice like, I mean, obviously a lot of girls don’t work as hard. The girls just don’t have the work ethic,” Skinner said in a picked up clip from the deleted YouTube video and has since gone viral on X .
MyKayla Skinner and Simone Biles at the Tokyo Games. Getty Images Jordan Chiles, Hezly Rivera, Jade Carey, Sunisa Lee and Simone Biles of Team United States celebrate after winning the gold medal during the Artistic Gymnastics Women’s Team Final on day four of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Bercy Arena on July 30, 2024. Getty Images
Skinner put out an Instagram video asking Biles to help put an end to the wave of comments that have attacked herself, her husband Jonas Harmer and their 23-month-old daughter Charlotte Jane.
“Simone, I am asking you directly and publicly, to please put a stop to this. 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,” Skinner said.
Mykayla Skinner of Team United States poses with the silver medal following the Women’s Vault Final on day nine of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Ariake Gymnastics Centre on August 01, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. Getty Images MyKayla Sinner begs Simone Biles to “put a stop” to cyberbullying after viral Olympics diss. mykaylaskinner2016/Instagram
Skinner apologized on social media last month for comments towards the team and said she sent out messages to each of the five gymnasts ahead of the Paris Games.
In Tuesday’s video, she said she had only heard back from one gymnast.
“Only Simone had responded and she told me that she was proud of me,” 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.”
Biles walked away from Paris with four more medals — three gold and one silver — and she may not be done just yet.
She didn’t rule out coming back for the 2028 Los Angeles Games when she would be 31 years old.
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