One of the most persistent gymnastics storylines at this year's Olympics is the ongoing feud between Simone Biles and MyKayla Skinner as a result of some controversial comments made by the retired gymnast ahead of the Games.
After criticizing this year's USA women's gymnastics team and the modern program at large, Skinner has found herself in hot water. Unfortunately, the 2021 silver medalist has become the victim of bullying herself—some of which is targeted at her family members.
This has led Skinner to appeal publicly to Biles for help, to which the 11-time Olympic medalist has yet to respond. Who knows, she might be too busy celebrating her multiple podiums from her successful competition in Paris.
Here's everything you need to know about the latest developments in the Skinner-Biles beef.
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Why did MyKayla Skinner ask Simone Biles for help?
Skinner took to social media to address the amount of cyberbullying she and her family had been subject to since her controversial comments about this year's USA women's gymnastics team. She, along with her husband and daughter, have received death threats and other threats of physical harm as a result of the situation.
In the Instagram video, Skinner said things "have really gotten out of hand lately" and that people are cheering on the bullying. She also explained that she had taken responsibility for her harsh criticism of today's USA gymnastics program and contacted each of the women on the team.
"Only Simone had responded, and she told me that she was proud of me," Skinner explained. "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."
The post that Skinner was referring to was Biles' post after winning the team event gold medal, in which the caption said "lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions."
"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," Skinner said. "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," Skinner added. "They’ve done nothing."
She then directly appealed to Biles, asking her to tame the fire, using the all-around champion's own mental health as an example as to why she should help Skinner.
"To Simone, I am asking you directly and publicly to please put a stop to this," Skinner said. "Please ask your followers to stop. You have been an incredible champion for mental health awareness and a lot of people need your help now. We’ve been attacked in ways that I’m certain you never intended. Your performance, the team’s performance, and the Olympics in general should be a time that we support one another."
Biles has yet to respond to Skinner's video.
MyKayla Skinner controversy, explained
Skinner first entered headlines surrounding the Paris Olympics just before the games, when she made extremely critical comments toward this year's Olympic team and the USA gymnastics program on a live stream during an Olympic trial watch party.
She said things along the lines of: "Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t what it used to be. I mean, obviously, a lot of girls don’t work as hard. The girls just don’t have the work ethic."
You might see why Biles' Instagram caption could have been in reference to Skinner's comments. Skinner eventually apologized publicly for her statements, in addition to reaching out to each of the team members separately.
"It was not my intention to offend or disrespect any of the athletes or to take away from their hard work," Skinner said. "Your hard work and dedication has paid off and I congratulate each and every one of you."
Despite her apologies, it's clear there are still hard feelings in the USA gymnastics sphere. Whether Biles will help Skinner at all is still to be determined.
MORE: USA Olympic gymnastics results
MyKayla Skinner Olympic history
Skinner's first and only Olympic appearance was in 2021 in Tokyo, where she finished with a silver medal on vault. She was also an alternate for the 2016 Olympic team in Rio.
After initially not qualifying in Tokyo for a chance at the individual event title, Skinner was fortunate to take Biles' place in the vault final after the gold medal favorite dropped out of the competition due to the "twisties." Brazil's Rebeca Andrade finished first, with Skinner in second.
