McKayla Maroney supports Simone Biles’ response to MyKayla Skinner’s comments about Team USA’s talent and work ethic. Read about the latest drama and Skinner’s apology.
Bollywood Fever: No one should get McKayla Maroney confused with anyone else. The gymnast — who helped Team USA win gold at the 2012 London Olympics — supported her friend Simone Biles‘ most recent Instagram caption, which fans are convinced is a jab against MyKayla Skinner‘s remarks about the current Olympic team.
While sharing a photo of herself, Jordan Chiles, Suni Lee, Jade Carey, and Hezly Rivera, Simone, 27, jokingly captioned her Tuesday, July 30, post, “Lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions.” In response, McKayla, 28, commented, “It doesn’t get more iconic than this. She f’d around n found out fr [sic].”
Referencing Team USA’s apparent nickname — “F**k around and find out” — the retired gymnast added, “Feels like I need to apologize just to redeem my first name,” in her comment.
Last month, a video surfaced of MyKayla, 27, criticizing the “talent” and “work ethic” of the current Olympic team. “Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t like what it used to be,” the athlete said. “Just notice like, I mean, obviously a lot of girls don’t work as hard. The girls just don’t have the work ethic.”
While noting that her comments weren’t “always necessarily about the current team,” MyKayla — who was an alternate for the 2016 Rio Olympics squad — added that she is “so proud of them.” She clarified that her statements were “more about going back into [her] own gym, just the work ethic is different compared to when we were doing gymnastics in the [previous team coach] Márta [Károlyi] era.”
“And I’m not sticking up for Márta or saying what she did was good, I’m just saying it was different,” MyKayla explained. “So anyway, sorry for anything that got out of context or seemed hurtful. That is never my intention. And seriously, throughout the video, I was so pumped for the girls, and it was so fun watching trials and doing a live with everybody.”
In a statement obtained by PEOPLE, MyKayla apologized to the team, insisting that it was “not [her] intention to offend or disrespect any of the athletes or to take away from their hard work.”
“Your hard work and dedication has paid off, and I congratulate each and every one of you. Upon reflection, I was comparing the ‘Marta Era’ to the current era. I am coming to terms that I have not fully dealt with the emotional and verbal abuse I endured under Marta that perhaps led to my hurtful comments. I take full responsibility for what I said and I deeply apologize. It is most important to me that the sport I love continues down the path of healing and ensures a positive environment for all. I wish you all the very best in Paris. I will be cheering you all on! Go Team USA!”
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