MyKayla Skinner is issuing a heartfelt apology after making controversial comments about Team USA during the ongoing Olympics.
In fact, the Olympic gymnast revealed she and her family have received death threats and more brutal online harassment after she criticized Simone Biles and the rest of the 2024 Team USA women’s gymnasts before the Paris Olympics.
“Things have really gotten out of hand lately,” the 27-year-old shared in an Aug. 6 Instagram video. “It’s one thing to disagree with me regarding something I have said or a point I was trying to make, but it’s something else entirely when that turns into cyber bullying or, even worse, watching people cheer on the bullying, which has led to threats of physical harm to me, my husband and our daughter is disgusting. Please, at this point, I am just asking to just stop for the sake of my family.”
Skinner—who shares 11-month-old daughter Charlotte with husband Jonas Harmer—also took accountability for “for poorly articulating the point I was trying to make” when she disparaged the female athletes’ work ethic in a since-deleted YouTube video.
“The last thing I wanted was to cause harm or offend our U.S. Olympic team,” she continued. “I know these women are incredible, the very best of the best and almost all of them are my former teammates, who I have enjoyed very much cheering on the last few years.”
MyKayla Skinner, a silver medalist at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, also sent a message directly to Biles, who revealed last week that she was blocked by Skinner on Instagram amid the drama.
“Simone’s latest post and others that followed it fueled another wave of hateful comments, DMs, articles and emails,” she explained. “Hate that includes death threats to me my family and even my agent. My family and my friends don’t deserve to be caught in the crossfire here. They’ve done nothing.
“So, to Simone,” Skinner concluded, “I am asking you directly and publicly to please put a stop to this. Please ask your followers to stop.”
Skinner’s plea comes several days after Biles’ 2024 Olympic teammates Suni Lee and Jordan Chiles seemingly called out Skinner on social media in support of Biles, who took home four medals during this year’s summer games.
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She captioned her post with, “I love our country and don’t want to take anything away from our athletes. Let’s use this time to build each other up, not tear others down.”
Skinner’s plea comes several days after Biles’ 2024 Olympic teammates Suni Lee and Jordan Chiles seemingly called out Skinner on social media in support of Biles, who took home four medals during this year’s summer games.