“Throughout my career, there have been many times when I have been belittled and bullied by Simone, and have wanted to keep quiet for the other athletes,” Mykayla Skinner told Fox in June 2025. “And there have been multiple times through my Olympic journey and through camps, training, everything that we have gone through, where she has come and belittled all of us. I’ve wanted to stay silent through this because she has a huge platform,” she added. What a bombshell to drop! And it didn’t end here.

In early July 2024, MyKayla Skinner uploaded a YouTube video—later deleted—where she said that, except for Simone, not many gymnasts in today’s time work hard. What followed was heavy criticism of the former US gymnast, but as she has claimed, there was a lot more to that video. Skinner clarified that her comments in the now-deleted 15-minute video were misinterpreted. She said a small clip was taken out of context, making her seem harsh or critical, which was never her intention. But it does not end here as well, Skinner has a lot more details for this controversy…the ones never told before.

“So it was sad because they took that clip, and I remember I was just folding laundry one day, and all of a sudden my phone’s just like boop boop boop boop….And I was like, “What’s popping on X?” You know, and so I open my phone and it was just like—my heart just starts racing. And it’s just like all these horrible comments, just boom boom boom boom boom boom,” Skinner confessed in an interview with CBN News on July 11th, 2025. Earlier, she had revealed that her publicist received hateful threats and comments targeting her family and daughter.

She talked of how her husband reassured her, saying she’d faced hate before and would be okay, that she had done nothing wrong. But she was overwhelmed, unsure of what she had done, and things quickly began to spiral. “And then it was crazy because, you know, Simone had posted a tweet saying, “Not everybody needs a mic and a platform.” And so then that kind of started a wave of more people attacking.” While Simone didn’t mention MyKayla by name, she wrote on Threads on July 3, “Not everyone needs a mic and a platform.” But then they talked.

The 28-year-old said in the interview that she got a text from the GOAT on the fourth of July and they had a private conversation, which made her feel okay. “I even wanted to send a personalized text to all the girls that had made the Olympic team,” the former gymnast confessed. She even asked Simone about the phone number of a teammate she did not have. “She (Biles) said that she was so proud of me for reaching out to the girls. In the previous text that she had sent me, she told me that she loved me and that she was proud of me. So I kind of thought the heat of things had died down. We were on okay terms,” Skinner told.

She sent out those texts but never got a response. She remembered sitting in a plane watching the Olympic team win the finals, and it was only when she landed and reached the gymnastics camp she had boarded the flight for, the big shock came. She confessed, “That night I got back to my room and Simone had made the tweet. I forget exactly what it says, but, you know, like ‘lazy,’ whatever—she was coming at me in her caption when they had just won the Olympic team. And that stabbed me in the heart. That hurt so bad.” What was her tweet? What followed?

Simone Biles and MyKayla Skinner, the 2024 controversy

After all of this had happened, the women’s division of US gymnastics had won the gold, and Simone Biles made a post, “Lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions,” Biles wrote on Instagram hours after Team USA won gold in the women’s gymnastics team final at the Paris 2024 Olympics. What followed? Skinner blocked Biles on Instagram. Biles announced the move on X, and teammate Jordan Chiles shared a photo of Biles holding her phone with proof. Several other gymnasts, including Suni Lee and Jade Carey, also blocked Skinner.

Later, the Tokyo silver medalist shared an emotional video on Instagram, saying the situation had “gotten out of hand”—with her, her husband, and their daughter receiving threats of physical harm and death. Claiming 100% responsibility for her actions, she even asked Simone Biles to put a stop to the hate that followed. “To Simone, I am asking you directly to please put a stop to this,” Skinner said.

“Please ask your followers to stop. You have been an incredible champion for mental health awareness, and a lot of people need your help now. We’ve been hurt and attacked in ways that I’m certain you never intended.” A year later, when Simone found herself fighting an online battle against Riley Gaines, MyKayla went against her, accusing her of bullying. What are your thoughts on those accusations?