McKayla Maroney adds fuel to Simone Biles’ shade at MyKayla Skinner

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McKayla Maroney has strongly supported Simone Biles' recent comment about MyKayla Skinner following the US women's gymnastics team's successful performance at the Paris Olympics.

The ex-gymnast, 28, commented on Biles' Instagram post in a way that seemed to criticize Skinner, who had said before that the gymnastics team wasn't as skilled as it used to be. Biles also seemed to respond to Skinner's comments in the caption of her post, which featured her and her teammates celebrating their win, by writing: "No talent, lazy, Olympic champs."

In her post, Maroney praised Biles and then humorously said sorry for having a name similar to Skinner's.

"There's nothing more classic than this... She messed around and got what was coming to her," Maroney stated. "I feel like I owe an apology just to restore my good name."

Even though Skinner made some comments that caused debate about the US team, she has continued to show her backing for the US gymnasts following their victory. Biles made a remark that seemed like a slight towards Skinner, but Skinner responded by sharing a picture of the triumphant US team on July 30 on her Instagram Story, accompanied by three heart emojis.

Although Skinner did not directly respond to Biles' post, the successful Olympian intensified the rumors of a dispute. Posting on X, formerly Twitter, on July 31, Biles wrote, "oops I've been blocked," causing fans to guess that Skinner was the one who blocked her.

The rumors were seemingly validated by Jordan Chiles, who snapped a photo of her friend's phone, showing that Biles couldn't view any of Skinner's updates on Instagram. In the description of the image, posted on her own Instagram feed, Chiles jokingly wrote: "When she blocks Simone."

Skinner gained widespread attention earlier this month when she remarked that the other members of the team did not possess the same level of "skill" as Olympic champion Biles.

"Compared to Simone, I believe the skill level and overall ability of gymnasts today is not the same as it once was," said the silver medalist in the 2020 Olympics for vault. "I can see that many girls are not putting in as much effort as they should. It seems like the work ethic of the girls has decreased."

Later on, many athletes criticized Skinner, with Biles specifically saying on Instagram that "not everyone deserves to have their voice heard." Additionally, Chiles' mother reacted by commenting, "Wow, she really said that publicly and posted it. That's quite something..."

Afterwards, Skinner went on her Instagram Story to clear up the remarks she made in a YouTube video. She began by saying, "Hey, everyone, just wanted to quickly address this because I know we talked about it on YouTube." She felt that many people had misunderstood or misinterpreted what she was trying to say in the video shared earlier in the month.

The ex-gymnast further explained that her observations were mainly drawn from her personal journey returning to gymnastics and her observations of how young gymnasts train nowadays.

I wanted to go back to my own gym because the way we worked there was different from when we were training under the former team coordinator, Márta Károlyi. I'm not defending Márta or saying her methods were good, just that they were different. I apologize if anything I said was taken out of context or hurtful. I always want to support and encourage others. Watching the Olympic trials and doing a live video with everyone was really exciting and fun for me.