All it took was a YouTube video for MyKayla Skinner to go from respected Olympic medalist to public enemy #1 in the gymnastics community. People were initially taken aback by Skinner’s “work ethic” jibe at her former teammates, but then came the backlash. The 27-year-old’s unwarranted criticism of an entire generation of gymnasts, except Simone Biles, riled up everyone.

The universal backlash for saying “a lot of girls don’t work as hard” promoted the retired gymnast to post two apologies. Skinner clarified that the athletes and fans had misinterpreted her statement on Instagram before posting a written apology across all her social media handles. However, neither Simone Biles nor gymnastics fans are ready to forgive Skinner.

The Tokyo 2020 vault silver medalist explained that things took an alarming turn after Team USA won the team all-around gold in Paris. The 7x Olympic gold medalist’s caption, “lack of talent, lazy, Olympic champions,” brought a “wave of hateful comments,” said Skinner. “Hate that includes death threats to me, my family, and even my agent,” added Skinner.

So the former Olympian pleaded to her former teammate. “To Simone, I am asking you to directly and publicly to please put a stop to this. Please ask your followers to stop,” MyKayla Skinner said in her Original Instagram video. However, her plea didn’t make much of a difference, as gymnastics fans once again called out Skinner for her actions.

MyKayla Skinner’s plea to Simone Biles backfired spectacularly

The old adage, ‘Third time’s the charm,’ didn’t hold true for the Olympian as fans didn’t let up. MyKayla Skinner called her former teammate a “champion for mental health awareness,” during her plea for help. However, one fan pointed out how the former Olympian didn’t hesitate to demoralize her teammates ahead of the Olympics. “She didn’t care about their mental health when she was trolling them,” commented one fan.

Others were equally harsh on 3x world champion. “MyKayla shut up. You brought this hate upon yourself when u decided to open ur mouth and make that YouTube video and decided to post it on the internet for people to see. It wasn’t Simone who brought you the hate. Now that ur getting a lot of hate and backlash, you wanna be crying,” wrote a user.

The netizen called out Skinner for trying to shift the onus to Simone Biles. The fan reiterated how the entire community, including Biles, felt shocked at the unprovoked criticism after the U.S. Olympic trials. For the netizen and many others, Skinner had no right to hold the 11x Olympic medalist responsible for the consequences of what she said on June 30th.

Another fan agreed with this sentiment, implying the former world champion was the architect of her demise. “If it isn’t the consequences of your own actions,” wrote the individual. Meanwhile, another fan pointed out how Skinner had burned her last bridge after blocking Biles. “No, MyKayla. Stand strong about how you totally and unprompted dug your own grave, that’s 100% your fault, and so is the fallout. Plus, lmao, didn’t you also block Simone on social media? But now you’re begging for her help? Yo, kick all of the rocks,” commented X-user.

The 27-year-old Olympic champion blocked MyKayla Skinner on social media shortly after her insensitive comments. However, before apologizing multiple times, Skinner also reciprocated by blocking her former teammate. Finally, one X-user said MyKayla Skinner should’ve buckled down and let the storm pass.

“She should have let it blow over. This isn’t helpful,” the individual wrote, implying that a third video on the incident will only aggravate the backlash. It seems fans see the former competitive gymnast’s most recent statement as yet another misstep.