Simone Biles hits back at former teammate MyKayla Skinner’s criticism after winning 2024 Olympic gold

PARIS, FRANCE: All-star gymnast Simone Biles appeared to shade one of her 2021 Olympic teammates, MyKayla Skinner, on Instagram after earning yet another gold medal with Team USA women's gymnastics on Tuesday, July 30.

Biles, 27, spearheaded the field with the help of Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, and Jade Carey, defeating Italy by almost five and a half points, per Daily Mail.

Following the success, Biles shared a photo of the squad on Instagram along with a message, apparently targeting her former teammate.

Simone Biles claps back at MyKayla Skinner with 'lazy' Instagram post

Following her gold medal-winning leading the US women's gymnastics team to the 2024 Paris Olympics, Olympian Simone Biles took to Instagram to respond to her detractors, who reportedly included her former teammate Skinner.

The 27-year-old athlete wrote, "lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions ❤️🥇🇺🇸," as the caption for a Tuesday Instagram photo.

Biles won her fifth gold medal in the competition, and she celebrated by posting a carousel of pictures of herself with her colleagues Suni Lee, Hezly Rivera, Jade Carey, and Jordan Chiles.

Biles' caption appeared to be a response to Skinner's earlier remarks on the Team USA gymnasts in a since-deleted YouTube video.

Skinner criticized the group consisting of Biles, Chiles, Lee, Carey, and Hezly Rivera for lacking the proper "work ethic" in a since-deleted YouTube video.

"Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn't like what it used to be," Skinner remarked at the time.

"The girls just don't have the work ethic," Skinner said, going on to mention the US Center for SafeSport, a nonprofit dedicated to lowering the number of athletes and teenagers who are sexually abused in US Olympic sports.

Skinner added: "And it's hard too because of SafeSport. Like, coaches can't get on athletes and they have to be really careful what they say."

"Which, in some ways, is really good. But at the same time, to get to where you need to be in gymnastics you do have to be, I feel like, a little aggressive and a little intense."

The former gymnast, who had retired following her silver medal win on the vault at the Olympics in Tokyo, later recanted her comments.

Skinner expressed regret for her remarks, claiming that they were "misinterpreted" and "misunderstood," and that she "wasn’t always necessarily [talking] about the current team."

Several gymnasts, including Biles, who took part for Team USA in the 2024 Paris Olympics, took offense at her remarks and blocked Skinner on social media as well.

"Not everyone needs a mic and a platform," Biles responded via Threads on Tuesday, July 3, per Us Weekly.

Eagle-eyed viewers connect Simone Biles' caption to Mykayla Skinner's comments

Fans with keen eyes immediately connected Biles' caption and Skinner's comments, in which she criticized the 2024 gymnasts for lacking the same "work ethic" as previous Team USA members.

One user took to the Instagram comment section and wrote, "IN THAT FKN ORDER LACK OF TALENT & LAZY OLYMPIC CHAMPIONS. 😂 Simone you a menace for this caption."

Fellow retired gymnast McKayla Maroney wrote, "It doesn’t get more iconic than this.. She f’d around n found out fr. Feels like I need to apologize just to redeem my first name"

"ABSOLUTELY ICONIC IN EVERY SINGEL WAY," exclaimed another follower.

Others took to X (formerly Twitter) to state how ironic Biles' caption was as one wrote, "What Simone Biles pretty much said to Mykayla Skinner on her IG."

"Simone Biles remembers the haters like former teammate MyKayla Skinner running her mouth….no wonder she called the team FAFO like an absolute savage," noted another.

Another said, "Simone Biles absolutely buries former U of U gymnast Mykayla Skinner. Goodness…"

"SIMONE BILES CLOCKING MYKAYLA SKINNER ON INSTAGRAM I HAVE DREAMED OF TIMES LIKE THESE," remarked another.

"That sound you just heard was Simone Biles dropkicking MyKayla Skinner into low-earth orbit," quipped another.

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