Simone Biles seems to have gotten the last word in a beef with former U.S. gymnastics teammate MyKayla Skinner following Team USA’s gold medal in the team competition Tuesday at the Paris Olympics.
Biles took to Instagram and said current U.S. teammates Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera had a “lack of talent” and described them as “lazy.”
Of course, the legendary gymnast didn’t mean any of it, until she got to the third part — “olympic champions.”
“Lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions ❤️🥇🇺🇸,” Biles wrote to go along with photos she posted on Instagram of herself and her teammates celebrating their gold medal at Bercy Arena.
Skinner retired from competitive gymnastics after winning the silver medal in the vault at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. In a now-deleted YouTube video last month, she was critical of all the gymnasts (with the exception of Biles) who would be representing the U.S. in Paris.
Her comments included “Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t like what it used to be” and “I mean, obviously a lot of girls don’t work as hard. The girls just don’t have the work ethic.”
On July 3, Biles wrote on Threads, “not everyone needs a mic and a platform,” which was interpreted by many to be a response to Skinner. Three days later, Skinner posted an apology on X.
“It was not my intention to offend or disrespect any of the athletes or to take away from their hard work,” she wrote. “Your hard work and dedication has paid off and I congratulate each and every one of you.”
Skinner added, “I wish you all the very best in Paris. I will be cheering you all on! Go Team USA!”
After the U.S. victory Tuesday, Skinner posted a photo of the gymnasts at the medal ceremony, along with three heart emojis, on her Instagram Stories.
Biles, whose eight Olympic medals are the most for any U.S. gymnast, didn’t mention Skinner by name in her Instagram post — but she didn’t have to. Social media users immediately recognized the reference and declared Biles the winner of the spat in the comment section of the post.
“Put a finger down if simone biles just ended you 🖐🏼,” Lee wrote, referring to a popular TikTok trend.
Chiles commented, “and that’s on periodt!!”
Former U.S. gymnast Nastia Liukin, whose five medals at the 2008 Beijing Games included an all-around gold, called Biles’ post a “micdrop.”
Fellow former U.S. gymnast McKayla Maroney, who won a team gold at the 2012 London Olympics and became a meme for appearing “not impressed” after winning silver in vault at the same Olympics, wrote: “Feels like I need to apologize just to redeem my first name.”
Apparently there actually has been some confusion between the two former U.S. gymnasts with similar first names. Maroney’s Wikipedia page currently begins with the phrase, “Not to be confused with MyKayla Skinner,” while Skinner’s page starts with, “Not to be confused with McKayla Maroney.”