MyKayla Skinner is calling on her former teammate Simone Biles for help. The 27-year-old former Olympian posted an Instagram video shortly after Simone, 27, and the rest of Team USA closed out the gymnastics portion of the Paris Olympics. In the clip, MyKayla pleaded for Simone to tell her fans to stop bullying her on social media.
“I love our country and don’t want to take anything away from our athletes,” MyKayla captioned the Instagram post on Tuesday, August 6. “Let’s use this time to build each other up, not tear others down.”
In the clip, the gymnast began by noting that she “sincerely hoped that this topic wouldn’t need to be revisited, but unfortunately, things have really gotten out of hand lately.”
While pointing out that it’s “one thing to disagree with me regarding something I have said or a point I was trying to make,” MyKayla pointed out that it’s “something else entirely when that turns into cyber bullying or even worse.”
The 2020 vault silver medalist went on to explain that she was “here” because, “about four weeks ago, I made a comment about work ethic and what seems to be taking pace with the rising generation.”
In the video from June, MyKayla criticized the current generation of gymnasts, claiming that they didn’t have the same talent or skills as other athletes from the past.
“To be totally clear, I take 100 percent responsibility for poorly articulating the point I was trying to make,” MyKayla noted, before adding, “And the last thing I wanted was to cause harm or offend our U.S. Olympic team. I know these women are incredible — the very best of the best — and almost all of them are my former teammates who I have enjoyed very much cheering on the last few years.”
While acknowledging the public apology she had made along with the alleged “individual messages” she had sent to Team USA, MyKayla claimed that Simone was the only one who “had responded, and she told me that she was proud of me.”
“You guys can imagine my surprise last week when I was celebrating our team winning gold just to see this brought up all over again by a caption on an Instagram post,” MyKayla added, referring to the viral Instagram caption that Simone shared after Team USA won gold. “If Simone truly believes that I called our team lazy and lacking talent and if that’s really how she feels, I am really heartbroken over it. But not just heartbroken because it isn’t what I feel or even how I previously said, but because Simone’s latest post and others that followed it fueled another wave of hateful comments, DMs, articles and emails. Hate that includes death threats to me my family and even my agent. My family and my friends don’t deserve to be caught in the crossfire here. They’ve done nothing.”
After multiple gymnasts and fans publicly applauded Simone’s caption, MyKayla blocked her on Instagram.
Toward the end of her Instagram video, MyKayla spoke directly to Simone, whom she called an “incredible champion for mental health awareness.”
“I am asking you directly and publicly to please put a stop to this,” MyKayla said. “Please ask your followers to stop. … Watching people cheer on the bullying is disgusting.” She then pointed out, “A lot of people need your help now. We’ve been attacked in ways that I’m certain you never intended.”
Simone has not publicly responded to MyKayla’s plea.