Simone Biles’ Olympic beef with former teammate MyKayla Skinner, explained

Simone Biles and Team USA are champions once more. Now dubbed “The Golden Girls,” in honor of being the oldest team to win gold, they’ve earned every right to celebrate — and also drag their doubters.

That’s precisely what happened on Tuesday, when Biles took serious shot at her former teammate MyKayla Skinner after winning gold.

Biles refused to let go comments that Skinner (her 2020 teammate) made ahead of the games when she said of the USA Women’s Team in Paris:

“Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t like what it used to be. A lot of girls don’t work as hard. The girls just don’t have the work ethic.”

The backlash was almost immediately. It’s patently ridiculous to claim anyone who makes it to the Olympic gamers doesn’t have talent, drive, or dedication. To make matters worse Skinner wistfully remembered USA Gymnastics under Márta Károlyi, the now-disgraced former coach of the team known for brutal physical and mental abuse, as well as being a central figure in enabling Larry Nassar to sexually abuse gymnasts on the team. In a now-deleted video she criticized “SafeSport,” the U.S. body established in the wake of the Nassar abuse scandal to protect athletes.

“(Coaches) have to be really careful about what they say, which in some ways is really good, but at the same time, to get where you need to be in gymnastics, you have to be … a little aggressive and a little intense.”

Skinner went on, routinely mispronouncing Hezly Rivera’s name, and seemingly criticizing Suni Lee’s body type. Skinner deleted the video with the criticism, and issued an apology — but the damage had been done.

In Biles’ view her former teammate not only slammed the women she’d be competing with in Paris, but appeared to support the abuse that caused so much damage. So naturally when Biles won gold she was going to make a point out of it.

Meanwhile former Team USA member McKayla Maroney, who was at the center of speaking out during the Nassar abuse scandal, didn’t want to be confused with Skinner because of their similar first names in a reply to Biles.