MyKayla Skinner is pleading with Simone Biles to “put a stop” to cyberbullying.
One week after Biles made headlines for dissing her former teammate in an Instagram caption celebrating her 2024 Paris Olympics win, Skinner issued a response.
“I love our country and don’t want to take anything away from our athletes,” the 27-year-old captioned an Instagram video Tuesday. “Let’s use this time to build each other up, not tear others down ❤️🇺🇸.”
In the footage, Skinner said that the online hate she has received since Biles shaded her has gotten “out of hand.”
Skinner, who said that Biles’ teammates — Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles, Sunisa Lee and Hazyl Rivera — lacked work ethic in a June YouTube video, explained that she has received threats toward herself, her husband, Jonas Harmer, and their 10-month-old daughter, Charlotte.
“Watching people cheer on the bullying … is disgusting,” she said. “So please at this point, I’m just asking for it to stop for the sake of my family because enough is enough.”
Skinner alleged that she apologized to the women and received a response from Biles, who said she was “proud” of her.
“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,” Skinner continued.
In the upload in question, Biles sarcastically referred to her gold medal-winning team “lack of talent, lazy, Olympic champions.”
Skinner said, “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,” she noted before addressing Biles directly.