After Team U.S.A. won the women’s gymnastics team gold medal at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday, Simone Biles appeared to fire back at a comment made by former teammate MyKayla Skinner.
Fresh off the win, Biles posted a series of photos of her and teammates Jordan Chiles, Sunisa Lee, Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera celebrating on Instagram.
“Lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions,” she captioned the post with heart, gold medal and American flag emojis.
Simone Biles celebrates with Team United States teammates and Gold medalists on the podium during the medal ceremony for the Artistic Gymnastics Women’s Team Final on day four of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Bercy Arena on July 30, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
The post was seemingly made in response to former teammate Skinner’s comments that, aside from Biles, the team did not have what it takes to win.
“Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t like what it used to be,” she said earlier this month. “Just notice like, I mean, obviously a lot of girls don’t work as hard.”
“The girls just don’t have the work ethic,” she said, adding that training and coaching was not as intense or aggressive anymore because of SafeSport, an organization that polices abuse in athletics.
Without referencing anything specific, Biles appeared to respond on Threads earlier this month.
“Not everyone needs a mic and a platform,” she wrote.
Skinner apologized, deleted the YouTube videos and said she did not mean to offend anyone.
Skinner retired from gymnastics after the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo where she took silver in vault. Skinner took Biles’ place on the team when the latter withdrew from the competition.
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