U.S. gymnastics royalty McKayla Maroney weighed in on the feud between Simone Biles and MyKayla Skinner that erupted following Team USA’s gold on Tuesday.
Biles, along with Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles and Jade Carey, dominated the field in the artistic gymnastics team final in Paris, winning by nearly five and a half points over Italy.
Biles later posted a photo of the team on Instagram with a brutal caption: “lack of talent, laziness, Olympic champions,” which came as a response to a comment Skinner posted online before the Paris Games.
In a now-deleted YouTube video, Skinner criticized the team of Biles, Chiles, Lee, Carey and Hezly Rivera for not having the proper “work ethic.”
But former Team USA star and 2012 gold medalist Maroney has now sided with Biles, taking to Instagram to offer her own opinion.
Former Team USA star McKayla Maroney has weighed in, and she’s firmly on Biles’ side.
Simone Biles captioned her celebratory post with a veiled photo of a former Team USA member.
Maroney joked that he needs to apologize just for sharing a first name with Skinner.
“It doesn’t get more iconic than this,” Maroney wrote on Instagram in response to Biles’ post. “She slept with someone and found out.”
Maroney then joked about sharing a nickname with Skinner.
“I feel like I need to apologize just to get my first name back,” she wrote.
Skinner, who won silver on vault at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, has come under fire for her comments about her former teammates.
“Aside from Simone, I feel like the talent and depth isn’t what it used to be,” the 27-year-old said on YouTube.
“Girls just don’t have the work ethic,” Skinner continued before referencing the Center for SafeSport USA, a nonprofit created to reduce sexual and emotional abuse of athletes in U.S. Olympic sports.
“And it’s also difficult because of SafeSport. Coaches can’t criticize athletes and they have to be very careful about what they say,” Skinner said.
“Which, in a way, is great. But at the same time, to get to where you need to be in gymnastics, you have to be, I think, a little bit aggressive and a little bit intense.”
From left, Suni Lee, Simone Biles and Hezly Rivera celebrate after winning the gold medal.
McKayla Maroney poses with the gold medal after day 4 of the 2012 Games
2020 Olympic team member MyKayla Skinner criticized the 2024 team’s work ethic
Immediately after that, Biles responded to Skinner, writing on Threads: “not everyone needs a microphone and a platform.”
Biles and other gymnasts, including Chiles, Lee and Carey, blocked Skinner on social media after his comments.
Skinner would later apologize.
“I want to formally apologize to Team USA and our gymnastics community for my comments during my recent YouTube episodes about the Olympic gymnastics trials. I did not mean to offend or disrespect any of the athletes or take away from their hard work,” Skinner’s July 6 apology read.
She continued: ‘After reflection, I was comparing the ‘Marta (Karolyi) era’ with the current era.
‘I am accepting that I have not fully overcome the emotional and verbal abuse I suffered under Marta’s command, which may have led to my hurtful comments. I take full responsibility for what I said and deeply apologize.’
Skinner ended his apology by wishing the gymnasts luck in Paris and telling them he would be “cheering them all on.”
Biles and Skinner have represented Team USA at several competitions, including the 2020 Olympics.
They won Olympic medals in Tokyo, despite Biles withdrawing from several events because of a case of “twisties,” a mental block that causes a gymnast to lose control of her body during a turning maneuver in the air.
But now she has her redemption: winning a second Olympic team gold and her fifth Olympic gold medal overall.
Reflecting on the achievement, Biles told DailyMail.com that the pressure in Paris was different to the past, but her experience helped her through it.
‘In 2016 we were destined to win gold and everyone said we were destined to win gold, so every time we went out we did our job and won gold.
Skinner, who won a silver medal on vault at the 2020 Games in Tokyo after replacing Biles, recently criticized the 2024 Olympic gymnastics roster for having “no work ethic.”
Biles blocked Skinner after her criticism, despite the gymnast issuing an apology
‘We were a bit young and naive, so we didn’t like it the way we like it now. Now that I’m a lot older and we have a lot more experience, we’re here having fun and enjoying what we do.
“I think it’s different and I don’t want to say I wasn’t surprised that we won because it was a big surprise, my first gold medal. It was very exciting. But I think we had so much pressure to win gold that we just did what we were supposed to do.
‘Even before tonight, we did what we had to do, but it felt a little different. It was very exciting, we had fun and we just did our gymnastics.
Simone added: “We’re so excited. We’re honored to represent the U.S. every time we step onto a world stage, but to achieve that gold and that goal was an incredible feeling.”
‘I think we all had something to prove at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and tonight we did it.
“It means a lot. It was our initial goal, although we didn’t share it with everyone because it’s something personal that we were working on. But I think for everyone it’s what we came here to do. And we’re very excited to take that gold medal.”
