"Lazy, Olympic champions"- Simone Biles takes a subtle dig at MyKayla Skinner for her controversial remarks after winning team gold at Paris Olympics

By Janhavi Shinde

Modified Jul 31, 2024 04:48 GMT

Following the USA team's recent victory, Simone Biles took a jab at former American gymnast MyKayla Skinner for the controversial remarks she made before the team left for Paris. The USA women's gymnastics team secured a gold medal in the team event, displaying a dominant performance.

They bagged a staggering total of 171.296 points to defeat the Italian and Brazilian squads, who collected 165.494 and 164.497 points, respectively. Following their glorious feat, the legendary gymnast took a dig at Skinner for her past brutal remarks.

Ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics, Skinner, who secured a silver medal on the vault at the Tokyo Olympics, criticized the 2024 Paris-bound women's gymnastics team in a YouTube video, except for Biles, for lacking work 'ethic'. Further, she also stated that the team, except Biles, was short of talent and depth.

"Besides Simone, I feel like that the talent and the depth just isn't what it used to be. I just noticed, I mean obviously, a lot of girls don't work as hard and the girls just don't have the work ethic... To get trained to be into gymnastics, you do have to be a little aggressive and a little intense", she said.

Skinner's remarks did not fit well within the gymnastics community, including the now five-time Olympic gold medalist Biles. After the resounding success of her team, Biles shared a picture on social media with the winning team along with a caption that seemed to take a swipe at Skinner.

"Lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions ❤️🥇," Biles wrote.

“It just felt a little bit different" - Simone Biles draws a difference between securing team gold at 2016 Rio and 2024 Paris Olympics

Simone Biles smiles during the Artistic Gymnastics Women's Team Final at the Olympic Games 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Getty Images)

Simone Biles clinched a gold medal along with the team, including Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas, Madison Kocian, and Laurie Hernandez at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

In an interview with Olympics.com, Biles reflected on her first team Olympic gold medal and drew a difference, stating that at the Rio Games, Team USA was poised as favorites to win a gold but, at the recent Games, the veterans, including herself, Chiles and Lee, competed with a sense of enjoyment and fun.

“I think in 2016, we were destined to win gold, everybody kind of already said we were going to win gold,” Biles said. “Now that I’m much older and we have so much more experience, we’re out here really having fun and enjoying what we’re doing.

“It just felt a little bit different,” she added. “It was super exciting, we had fun, we enjoyed each other’s time out there, and we just did our gymnastics.”

Simone Biles is yet to compete in the individual all-around event at the Paris Olympics.