The Olympic Games, a unique sports event, bring together the best athletes in the globe. The Olympics are a big deal in many respects, from intense rivalry between the best to global controversy erupting around them.
In fact, at this point, the controversies and drama have become somewhat of a tradition.
While the world was trying to free itself from the grasp of a raging boxing controversy that raised questions of gender discrimination and unfair play, a few comments on social media platforms were enough to divert the attention towards a new dispute. This time, it was gymnastics that hogged the limelight.
Feuds among athletes are not uncommon. However, the name of a global superstar like Simone Biles getting linked to the latest one is what created the hype around it.
They once fought shoulder-to-shoulder on the grandest of stages. Today, Biles and MyKayla Skinner have become two fronts of a social media war. Unfortunately, this controversy eclipsed the gold-medal win of the United States of America’s (USA) women’s gymnastics team.
If we have piqued your curiosity about the feud between Simone Biles and MyKayla Skinner at the Paris Olympics 2024, scroll away to learn about the origin of this controversy, along with an overview of the two athletes’ career records.
The controversy between Simone Biles and MyKayla Skinner erupted soon after the American women’s gymnastics team won the gold medal in Paris. However, it started long before that.
Albeit an Olympic medal winner with the American women’s gymnastics side, MyKayla Skinner has had a beef with the USA team for nearly a decade. She publicly expressed her disappointment (which, we daresay, was neither soft nor polite) after being left out of the women’s gymnastics squad that represented the USA at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Naturally, the shock of not making it to the Olympics was too hard for her to take, considering she won a gold medal at the World Championships a couple of years back.
However, it seemed as if all was forgotten and forgiven when Skinner made a comeback into the national side in 2019. She was a part of the USA team that won the gold medal at the World Championships in Stuttgart that year.
At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Skinner replaced Biles in the vault final when the latter opted out citing mental health issues. Skinner finished second and clinched the silver medal. She retired from the sport at the conclusion of the Olympics.
Yes, this is exactly the question on everyone’s minds, given that the two of them never indulged in any big argument. If we had to guess, it seems somehow MyKayla Skinner’s bad blood with the national gymnastics team has been rekindled.
In a video uploaded on YouTube, the former athlete bashed the USA’s women’s gymnastics squad that participated at the Paris Olympics 2024. This is what she had to say:
“Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t like what it used to be. A lot of girls don’t work as hard.”
Skinner attributed this ‘unimpressive’ work ethic to the U.S. Center for SafeSpot, an organisation created in the wake of the infamous sex abuse scandal (which was also made into a Netflix documentary, Athlete A). The video has since been deleted.
Now why was it pertinent to take down Skinner’s video? This is a result of the heavy backlash that the former gymnast received from the sports fraternity.
As a means of damage control, she posted an apology on her Instagram account.
View this post on Instagram
Soon after MyKayla Skinner’s video broke the internet, Simone Biles posted her response on Threads:
“not everyone needs a mic and a platform”
View this post on Instagram
If we try to weigh the career stats and records of Simone Biles and MyKayla Skinner, there is no comparison at all — the former is miles ahead!
Here is how each of their international medals tally stands:
Gold: Seven
Silver: Two
Bronze: Two
Total: 11
Gold: 23
Silver: Four
Bronze: Three
Total: 30
Gold: Two
Total: Two
Gold: Two
Silver: One
Total: Three
Silver: One
Total: One
Gold: Three
Bronze: One
Total: Four
Gold: Four
Total: Four
Gold: One
Silver: One
Total: Two
Even in terms of the amount of wealth accumulated, Biles holds a strong advantage over Skinner.
According to a report by Celebrity Net Worth, Simone Biles, as of August 2024, commands a net worth of USD 25 million (around SGD 33.2 million). Meanwhile, reports suggest that MyKayla Skinner’s net worth stands at around USD 1 million (around SGD 1.3 million).
(Main Image Credits: Simone Biles/Instagram and MyKayla Skinner (Harmer)/Instagram; Featured Image Credits: MyKayla Skinner (Harmer)/Instagram)
This story first appeared on Lifestyle Asia Singapore.
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