2024-08-01 07:25:02
McKayla Maroney has Simone Biles’ back!
The 2012 Olympic gold medalist is showing her support after Biles referenced controversial comments from former gymnast MyKayla Skinner in an Instagram post.
In a celebratory photo of herself and the “Golden Girls” — Jordan Chiles, Suni Lee, Hezly Rivera and Jade Carey — triumphantly holding the American flag after they won gold in the women’s team all-around, Biles, 27, wrote in a cheeky caption: “lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions ❤️🥇🇺🇸”
“It doesn’t get more iconic than this,” Maroney, 28, wrote in the comments. “She f’d around n found out fr. Feels like I need to apologize just to redeem my first name.”
In June, Skinner, 27, said in a now-deleted YouTube video that she felt the gymnasts selected for the 2024 team “don’t have the work ethic.” She added in the video, “Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t like what it used to be.”
Skinner later said her remarks were “misinterpreted.” In a response on her Instagram Stories on July 3, Skinner claimed that “a lot of the stuff” she talked about in the YouTube video “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.”
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Yet in the wake of Biles’ post, on Wednesday, July 31, the most decorated U.S. gymnast ever shared that Skinner — who she competed with on Team USA during the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 — had blocked her on Instagram. Biles wrote, “Oop I’ve been blocked,” adding several emojis.
Chiles — who trains with Biles at World Champions Centre in Spring, Texas and is a close friend — then also entered the chat and confirmed the development, sharing a screenshot of her phone on her Instagram Stories around the same time.
In the 23-year-old’s shot, the phone is clicked into Skinner’s Instagram profile, which shows “no posts yet.”
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