Simone Biles crafted a gold medal-worthy caption after the U.S. women dominated the Olympic gymnastics team final in an apparent slam against her former teammate following harsh remarks weeks earlier.
“Lack of talent, lazy Olympic champions,” Biles posted on Instagram after the win alongside a photo of her triumphant American teammates, a veteran squad which dubbed themselves the “Golden Girls” following Tuesday’s U.S. victory.
Biles was referencing colorful commentary made by 2020 U.S. Olympic gymnast MyKayla Skinner while live video-blogging the U.S. team trials in June.
“Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t like what it used to be,” Skinner, 27, said in the now-deleted video.
“The girls just don’t have the work ethic.”
The words immediately drew a landslide of backlash from the gymnastics community and scores of athletes, including former Olympians, swarmed to the ladies’ defence.
“Let the stinky ‘turd’ lie in all its stinkiness,” Kathy Johnson Clarke, two-time 1984 U.S. Olympic medallist turned commentator, posted on X, seemingly referencing Skinner’s comments.
Skinner, who felt she was unfairly left off the 2016 Rio squad, was selected to represent the U.S. as an individual in Tokyo where she earned a silver medal in the vault, an event from which the heavily-favored Biles withdrew due to the “twisties”.
A few days after the damaging video, Skinner tried to smooth things over by suggesting her comments had been misinterpreted. Biles was unimpressed.
“Not everyone needs a mic and a platform,” Biles, 27, posted on social media amid Skinner’s botched apology, possibly prompting Skinner’s longer, written statement a couple days later.
“It was not my intention to offend or disrespect any of the athletes or to take away from their hard work,” she wrote at the time.
“I take full responsibility for what I said and I deeply apologize.”
But Biles and most other Team USA gymnasts had already unfollowed Skinner on Instagram.
Biles will go for her ninth Olympic medal and second of the Paris Games in Thursday’s all-around final.
