Most of us have become accustomed to the drama associated with sports. There are times, however, when it may take us by surprise.
Recently, an American Olympic gymnast, MyKayla Skinner posted a video online and it came back to haunt her. Since then, she has asked her teammate, Simone Biles to end the cyberbullying that has followed.
The video was posted in June 2024 on YouTube but it has been deleted since then. In the video, she stated that there were some gymnasts who did not have the necessary work ethic. When many people saw it, they thought that it was directed at the 2024 Olympic team.
“Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t like what it used to be,” she stated then. “Just notice like, I mean, obviously a lot of girls don’t work as hard. The girls just don’t have the work ethic.”
After posting the video, the athlete received a lot of negative comments. She ended up posting a video on Instagram stories at the beginning of July so she could reply to the comments.
Her claim is that the initial comments were misrepresented and they weren’t about the current team necessarily.
She also offered a formal apology on her Instagram page as well.
“Dear Team USA and our gymnastics community, I want to formally apologize to Team USA and to our gymnastic community for my comments during my recent YouTube episodes of the gymnastics Olympic trials,” she wrote. “It was not my 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.”
Simone did reply, saying: “Lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions 
”
Since the post, has admitted that things have gotten out of hand as a result of the post. MyKayla said that some have even threatened to harm her physically or to come after her family.
She said: “To be totally clear, I take 100% responsibility for poorly articulating the point I was trying to make, and the last thing I wanted was to cause harm or offend our US Olympic team. 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.”
“To Simone, I am asking you directly and publicly to please put a stop to this. Please ask your followers to stop. You have been an incredible champion for mental health awareness, and lot of people need your help now. We’ve been hurt and attacked in ways that I am certain you never. Intended to.”
She concluded: “I love our country, and I love our team, and I hope that we can move on and move forward and cheer on the rest of our teammates and our athletes together.”