Retired gymnast MyKayla Skinner has called on her former teammate, , to "put a stop" to the hate that's surrounded her since she made controversial comments about this year's U.S. women's Olympic team — and namely since Biles reignited the conversation with an Instagram caption last week.
Skinner, who competed on the 2020 U.S. women's Olympic gymnastics team with Biles, said in a video posted to her Instagram Tuesday that she's been subject to cyberbullying and that her family has also received "threats of physical harm" in recent weeks.
This, she said in the video, was compounded by fans who "cheer on the bullying," by Biles' post seemingly shading Skinner and the "wave of hateful comments, DMs, articles and emails" that followed. This back-and-forth drama within the gymnastics world began in June when Skinner posted a now-deleted YouTube video about the . "Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn't what it used to be," Skinner said in the YouTube video.
"I mean, obviously, a lot of girls just don't work as hard. The girls just don't have the work ethic." The comments drew backlash, in part, because many of the women representing Team USA in this year's team were also Skinner's 2020 teammates.
In 2020, Skinner competed in an individual event along with Jade Carey while Biles, Jordan Chiles, Suni Lee and Grace McCallum competed in the team event. This year, Biles, Chiles, Lee, Carey and Hezly Rivera made up the team. Skinner later said in another video .