Simone Biles has been blocked by former Team USA teammate MyKayla Skinner on social media amid an ongoing feud during the 2024 Olympics.
Biles revealed the news on X, and although she did not specify who she had been blocked by, all signs pointed to it being Skinner.
Jordan Chiles, Biles’ 2024 Olympic teammate, posted a photo on Instagram confirming that Skinner blocked the superstar gymnast on the platform.
oop I’ve been blocked 👀🫢😂
— Simone Biles (@Simone_Biles) July 31, 2024
NO ONE IS SAFE FROM A MYKAYLA SKINNER BLOCK pic.twitter.com/11uPUuvVTm
— h (@pikedjumps) July 31, 2024
McKayla Maroney, who won team gold for the United States in women’s gymnastics at the 2012 Summer Olympics, threw her support behind Biles on Tuesday night after Biles seemingly took a shot at Skinner.
After Biles helped lead the United States to gold in the team all-around at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris on Tuesday, she took to Instagram to post a photo of herself and her teammates celebrating, including the caption: “Lack of talent, lazy, Olympic champions.”
“Lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions ❤️”
Simone Biles sends a message to the haters after Team USA took home the gold medal in gymnastics 🥇
(via @Simone_Biles) pic.twitter.com/rPlL6SOWJ8
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) July 31, 2024
Biles’ post seemed to be in reference to Skinner, who was Biles’ 2020 Olympic teammate, taking a shot at the 2024 United States women’s gymnastics team.
In a since-deleted video (h/t Becca Longmire of People), Skinner had some less than complimentary things to say about the team that was chosen, saying: “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.”
Maroney hilariously tried to distance herself from Skinner’s comments, noting in the comments of Biles’ Instagram post that she didn’t share Skinner’s beliefs despite them having a similar first name:
OH MY GOD MCKAYLA 😭😭 pic.twitter.com/1ZJHXEAmAY
— jade (@mccuskerights) July 31, 2024
Coincidentally, Maroney won silver in the vault at the 2012 Summer Olympics and Skinner won silver in the vault at the 2020 Summer Olympics. Still, Maroney made it clear that they were on entirely different pages with regard to the 2024 Olympic women’s gymnastics squad.
After winning back-to-back Olympic gold medals in the team all-around in 2012 and 2016, the Americans were huge favorites to make it three in a row at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which were held in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, Biles experienced a mental block referred to as the “twisties,” which resulted in her exiting the event and placed the onus on Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles and Grace McCallum to lead Team USA.
The Americans still managed a silver medal in the team event, but it was a disappointing result nonetheless.
Biles was able to return and win bronze on the balance beam, while Lee won individual all-around gold and Jade Carey won gold in the floor exercise.
Biles, Lee, Chiles and Carey all returned to represent Team USA again at the 2024 Summer Games, while 16-year-old Hezly Rivera was the only new addition to the roster.
The United States made up for the disappointment of three years ago by winning team gold in dominant fashion in Paris, and the team proved plenty of naysayers wrong in the process, including Skinner.
By virtue of their victory, the 2024 team entered the conversation for greatest United States women’s gymnastics team of all time along with the 2012 and 2016 squads, and Maroney seems to respect their place in that discussion.
