Olympian MyKayla Skinner is responding to the overwhelming backlash over her comments about the US women’s gymnastics team heading to the 2024 Paris Olympics!
In a video posted to YouTube on Wednesday, the 27-year-old former gymnast had the audacity to criticize the entire team — except for Simone Biles. And prepare for your jaws to be on the floor over what she had to say about the athletes! MyKayla claimed they all had no “talent,” “depth,” or “work ethic.” Yes, she really said that about the other team members — Suni Lee, Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles, Hezly Rivera — and the two alternates, Joscelyn Roberson and Leanne Wong:
“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.”
What the f**k? How could she even say this publicly? What’s even crazier is she’s talking crap about some of her old teammates! She competed with Suni, Jade, and Jordan in Tokyo in 2020 after Simone had to drop out! Not to mention she’s saying this about first-time team member Hezly, who is only 16 years old!
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These women got to where they are today because of their talent and YEARS of blood, sweat, and tears on the mat! And MyKayla, of all people, should know that! So rude and uncalled for! And her remarks only got worse from there. MyKayla then went on to claim one of the reasons the gymnasts have such poor work ethic is because of the emotional, physical, and sexual abuse prevention program SafeSport:
“Coaches can’t get on athletes, and they have to be really careful what they say.”
IT’S TOO SAFE?! That’s her claim??
For those who don’t know, USA Gymnastics began using the independent organization more following the Larry Nassar scandal in 2018. Many gymnastics — including Simone — claimed they were sexually abused by the doctor while training in former Team USA coaches Márta and Bela Károlyi’s facilities. So the fact she’s now blaming a program meant to try to protect athletes from abuse? After what some of her former competitors went through? Absolutely disgusting.
After the video went viral, MyKayla’s words have faced a ton of criticism online. Even Simone seemingly weighed in on the controversy, saying on Threads:
“not everyone needs a mic and a platform.”
HA! Say it louder for everyone to hear! Jordan’s mom also wrote:
“Whoa. She really said that out loud and posted it. That’s something….”
Well, MyKayla heard the backlash loud and clear. She deleted the YouTube video. took to Instagram Stories on Wednesday to apologize — well, kind of. Really she’s here to insist her comments were “misinterpreted or misunderstood.” She said:
“Hey, guys, just wanted to pop on here really quick, because I know we did the recap on YouTube, and I feel like a lot of you guys had misinterpreted or misunderstood exactly what I was meaning or had said.”
The mom of one then claimed “a lot of the stuff” mentioned in the video “wasn’t always necessarily about the current team, because I love and support all the girls that made it and I’m so proud of them,” adding:
“It was more about going back into my own gym, just 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.”
Hmm. She continued:
“So anyway, 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.”
MyKayla once again mentioned she “loves” the women on the current team and is “seriously so happy for them”:
“I would never do anything to make them feel otherwise. So sorry if that came out wrong. That was not my intention at all.”
Umm… What kind of apology is this first of all? “Sorry for anything that got out of context or seemed hurtful”?? That isn’t an apology! That’s telling everyone they got it wrong! Which, by the way, they did not!
She clearly still means what she said before. And how else were people supposed to interpret her comments? She never pointed out she was talking about the gymnasts at her old gym, and only called out Simone to exclude her from the comments. You’d have to twist yourself in knots to think this was anything other than trash-talking the ladies on the current Olympic team! Ugh.
It’s safe to say MyKayla just burned a lot of bridges in the gymnastics world, and this “apology” isn’t going to help! What are YOUR thoughts on the controversy, Perezcious readers? Sound OFF in the comments below.
[Image via MEGA/WENN, Olympics/YouTube]