Simone Biles Seemingly Responds To Olympian MyKayla Skinner_s Comments About Olympic Team
Transcript
00:00Simone Biles is defending her team.
00:04The three-time Olympic gymnast seemingly weighed in on Mikayla Skinner's recent controversial
00:09comments about the 2024 Gymnastics Olympic team.
00:12Although the 28-year-old didn't mention the Olympic silver medalist by name, she wrote
00:16on threads, quote,
00:17''Not everyone needs a mic and a platform.''
00:21The post came after Mikayla sparked controversy in a since-deleted YouTube video for saying,
00:26quote,
00:27''On my own, I feel like the talent and depth just isn't what it used to be,'' adding
00:31in part, quote,
00:32''The girls just don't have the work ethic, and it's hard to because of safe sport.
00:36Like coaches can't get on athletes and they have to be really careful what they say.
00:41Which in some ways is really good, but at the same time, to get where you need to be
00:44in gymnastics, you have to be, I feel like, a little aggressive and a little intense.''
00:50In the video, Mikayla referenced the U.S. Center for Safe Sport, which is a non-profit
00:55organization that helps end abuse in athletics.
00:59Since her video sparked backlash, Mikayla has since apologized and clarified what she
01:03meant in an Instagram story posted on July 3.
01:06I feel like a lot of you guys had misinterpreted or misunderstood exactly what I was meaning
01:11or had said.
01:12I mean, a lot of the stuff that I was talking about wasn't always necessarily about the
01:18current team because I love and support all the girls that made it and I'm so proud of
01:22them.
01:23It was more about going back into my own gym, just the work ethic is different compared
01:27to when we were doing gymnastics in the MARTA era.
01:31And I'm not sticking up for MARTA or saying what she did was good, I'm just saying it
01:35was different.
01:36So anyway, sorry for anything that got out of context or seemed hurtful, that is never
01:43my intentions.
01:44And seriously, throughout the video, I was so pumped for the girls and it was so fun
01:47watching trials and doing a live with everybody.
01:50I love those girls and I'm seriously so happy for them, so I would never do anything to
01:55make them feel otherwise.
01:57So sorry if that came out wrong, that was not my intentions at all.
02:02Mikayla traveled with Simone to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo and won silver on vault.
02:08This time Simone is back for her third Olympics with Suni Lee, Jade Carey, Jordan Childs and
02:13Hesley Rivera.
02:14The team is already highly decorated.
02:17Simone has seven Olympic medals, four gold and a bronze from the 2016 games where she
02:22won the all-around and team finals.
02:25She also got two medals at the 2020 Olympics.
02:28Suni, Jordan and Jade are now two-time Olympians after competing in the 2020 Olympic Games
02:33where Suni won gold in the women all-around, bronze and beam and silver in the team finals
02:39along with Jordan.
02:40Jade also won gold in the floor exercise.
02:43You can watch Team USA compete at the 2024 Paris Olympics starting July 26th on NBC and
02:50Peacock.