MyKayla Skinner is urging Simone Biles to take a stand against cyberbullying. Following Biles’ recent Instagram post where she seemingly criticized her former teammate while celebrating her 2024 Paris Olympics victory, Skinner has come forward with a response.
“I love our country and don’t want to take anything away from our athletes,” the 27-year-old said in her caption to an Instagram video on Tuesday. “Let’s use this time to build each other up, not tear others down ❤️🇺🇸.” Skinner expressed in the video that the negative feedback she has been receiving online following Biles’ criticism has escalated to an excessive level. Skinner, who previously commented on the work ethic of Biles’ teammates in a YouTube video in June, revealed that she has received threats directed towards herself, her husband Jonas Harmer, and their 10-month-old daughter.
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“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 claimed that she issued an apology to the women and received a response from Biles, who expressed that 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 specific video, Biles sarcastically characterized her gold medal-winning team as “lacking 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.
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“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.
“I am asking you directly and publicly to please put a stop to this,” she begged. “Please ask your followers to stop.”