Simone Biles has made a phenomenal comeback at this year’s Olympics, ensuring her critics are well aware of Team USA’s gold-winning performance.
On July 30, Biles, along with her teammates Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey, and Hezly Rivera, secured the gold medal for Team USA in the women’s gymnastics group final.
The accomplished athlete, who now boasts eight Olympic medals, celebrated this significant achievement by posting several photos of the team on her Instagram.
In the caption accompanying the group photos, Biles wrote, “Lack of talent, lazy, Olympic champions.”
Fans quickly interpreted this caption as a possible jab at Biles’ former teammate MyKayla Skinner, who had previously criticized Team USA’s work ethic in a YouTube video that has since been deleted.
“Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t like what it used to be,” Skinner said in her video after the initial announcement of the team members heading to the Paris Olympics.
“Just notice like, I mean, obviously a lot of girls don’t work as hard. The girls just don’t have the work ethic,” she added.
Following significant backlash, Skinner walked back her comments, claiming her statements had been misunderstood.
In a video posted to her Instagram stories on July 3, Skinner clarified that ‘a lot of the stuff’ she mentioned in the deleted video ‘wasn’t always necessarily about the current team.’
“I love and support all the girls that made it and I’m so proud of them,” she stated in the Instagram Story video.
“It was more about going back into my own gym, just the work ethic is different compared to when we were doing gymnastics in the [former team coordinator] 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.
“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 the trials and doing a live with everybody.”
Clips from Skinner’s initial video have since gone viral on Twitter, with fans reacting to her remarks and Biles’ Instagram post.
“Simone naming her team ‘f around and find out’ and then adding this caption after the win was absolutely iconic,” one user wrote on Twitter.
“When you’ve just been SITTING on an Instagram caption,” added another.
Many have also noted Biles’ teammate Suni Lee’s comment under the Instagram post, interpreting it as confirmation of Biles’ shade.
“Put a finger down if Simone Biles just ended you,” Lee wrote, further exciting fans.