Simone Biles seemingly shades MyKayla Skinner's critique of US team
In the wake of the U.S. women gymnastics team's Olympic gold medal win in Paris, Simone Biles seemingly clapped back at a former Olympic teammate who had previously criticized other gymnasts, claiming they lacked work ethic and talent.
Biles, now the most decorated American gymnast in Olympic history, shared photos Tuesday of herself and teammates Jordan Chiles, Suni Lee, Hezly Rivera and Jade Carey holding the American flag as they celebrated their gold medal win.
Biles, 27, captioned the photos on Instagram, "lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions," followed by several emoji including a heart and a gold medal.
Biles' pointed caption was seemingly in response to comments her former teammate, MyKayla Skinner, made prior to the Paris Olympics, in which she said some gymnasts -- which many took to mean members of the 2024 team -- lacked "work ethic."
"Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn't like what it used to be," Skinner said in part, in a since-deleted YouTube video posted during the Olympic trials in June. "Just notice like, I mean, obviously a lot of girls don't work as hard. The girls just don't have the work ethic."
After her comments received backlash, Skinner, a member of the 2020 U.S. women's Olympic gymnastics team, claimed in a video posted to her Instagram story on July 3 that her initial comments had been "misinterpreted" or "misunderstood," adding that they "[weren't] necessarily about the current team."
Skinner later posted a formal apology on social media on July 6.
"I want to formally apologize to Team USA and to our gymnastic community for my comments during my recent YouTube episodes of the gymnastics Olympic trials," Skinner wrote, in part. "It was not my intention to offend or disrespect any of the athletes or to take away from their hard work. Your hard work and dedication has paid off and I congratulate each and every one of you."
Skinner competed alongside Biles in the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics, during which the U.S. women earned a silver medal in the team competition.
Skinner announced her retirement from gymnastics shortly after competing in the 2020 Olympics.
Following Team USA's gold medal win in Paris, Skinner celebrated their win on Instagram, sharing on her story a photo of the team during the medal ceremony along with several heart emoji.
The U.S. women's gymnastics team finished the team competition with a score of 171.296, nearly six points above the second place team, Italy.
Italy earned the silver medal with 165.494 points and Brazil took home bronze with 164.497 points.
With their gold medal win, the U.S. women's gymnastics team has now medaled at every Olympics since 1992 in Barcelona.
ABC News' Kelly McCarthy contributed to this report.
