Simone Biles Hits Back At MyKayla Skinner's Remarks At Team USA After Bagging Gold

MyKayla Skinner's "work ethic" comments about Team USA continue to garner criticism, with the latest coming from Simone Biles.

The renowned artistic gymnast celebrated her team's victory at the 2024 Olympics by clapping back at her former teammate's words. Her classy retort has since gone viral, and other athletes have applauded her stance.

Simone Biles is the most decorated gymnast in history, probably why MyKayla Skinner excluded her from her comments. However, messing with Biles' teammates is the same as coming for her.

On Tuesday, July 30, the USA's artistic gymnastics Team won the gold medal for their category at the Paris Games. Biles commemorated the occasion on Instagram, sharing multiple pictures of the group's celebratory moment.

The snaps captured Biles, Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey, and Hezly Rivera holding their country's flag and whooping joyfully. "Lack of talent, lazy, Olympic champions," the gymnast captioned the post.

Biles' words seemed directed at Skinner's recent comments about Team USA, where she criticized the squad's "worth ethic" in a since-deleted YouTube video. A fan shared part of the clip on X, with Skinner claiming:

"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."

Biles' shot at Skinner received over two million likes and thousands of comments from fans and celebrities. Retired artistic gymnast McKayla Maroney applauded the 27-year-old, writing:

"It doesn't get more iconic than this.. She f'd around n found out fr. Feels like I need to apologize just to redeem my first name."

Former gymnast Nastia Liukin echoed similar sentiments, chiming, "mic drop," while Biles' teammate Jordan Chiles penned, "And that's on period!!" The athlete's husband, Jonathan Owens, added, "F AROUND AND FIND OUT."

"THIS CAPTION WINS A GOLD MEDAL," a fan declared. Another supporter agreed, writing: "IN THAT FKN ORDER LACK OF TALENT & LAZY OLYMPIC CHAMPIONS. Simone, you a menace for this caption."

Weeks before Biles clapped back at Skinner, she apologized for her comments amid growing backlash. On July 3, she shared a video on her Instagram Story, claiming the deleted YouTube video was "misinterpreted."

"I feel like a lot of you guys had misinterpreted or misunderstood exactly what I was meaning or had said," Skinner claimed, noting her comments "wasn't always necessarily about the current team."

"I love and support all the girls that made it, and I'm so proud of them. It was more about going back into my own gym," the former artistic gymnast explained, per PEOPLE, adding:

"The work ethic is different compared to when we were doing gymnastics in the [former team coordinator] Márta [Károlyi] era. And I'm not sticking up for Márta or saying what she did was good; I'm just saying it was different."

Following her explanation, Skinner apologized for her comments, saying, "Sorry for anything that got out of context or seemed hurtful. That is never my intention."

"And seriously, throughout the video, I was so pumped for the girls, and it was so fun watching trials and doing a live with everybody,” Skinner continued, stressing that she "loves" everyone on Biles’ squad.

"I would never do anything to make them feel otherwise. So sorry if that came out wrong. That was not my intention at all,” Skinner concluded. She echoed similar sentiments in a statement through her rep, formally apologizing to the gymnastics community.

Before the drama with Skinner, The Blast reported that Biles had become a 5-time Olympic gold medalist. She scored her recent achievement at the Paris Games when her squad defeated Italy and Brazil for first place.

The 27-year-old competed in four exercises: the vault, uneven bars, balance beam, and floor. She performed satisfactorily in each event, and her teammates boosted their overall scores with similar performances.

Simone Biles has eight Olympic medals with 5 gold, 1 silver, and 2 bronze honors; she is simply the G.O.A.T!