Simone Biles of the United States competes on the balance beam during the women’s team final at the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games. Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

MyKayla Skinner allegedly blocks Simone Biles after social-media shade

By Chelena Goldman | Last updated Jul 31, 2024 1:48 PM ET

Simone Biles won more than a gold medal this week: She also might've gotten the last word.

Biles has been busy wearing many hats. In addition to competing with Team USA in Paris while combating criticism from former teammate MyKayla Skinner, who went viral for criticizing the current team's work ethic.

On Wednesday, one day after the U.S. women's gymnastics team captured gold — and Biles threw some shade at the retired gymnast via Instagram — Biles insinuated on the X platform that someone of consequence had blocked her.

Naturally, all eyes are trained on Skinner as the culprit.

oop I’ve been blocked
— Simone Biles (@Simone_Biles) July 31, 2024

Skinner, Biles' teammate at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, received backlash earlier this month for a since-deleted YouTube video in which she slammed the current team for its poor work ethic and even said the team lacked talent.

"Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn't like what it used to be," Skinner said. "Just notice, like, I mean, obviously, a lot of girls don't work as hard."

Skinner posted an apology video to Instagram following massive criticism, saying that her words were taken out of context. But that didn't stop Biles from defending her teammates and referencing Skinner's hurtful words when her team medaled this week, calling her squad "lack of talent, lazy, Olympic champions."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Simone Biles (@simonebiles)

With the gold medal effort in Paris, Biles is now the most decorated U.S. women's gymnast in history. She can add to her medal arsenal when she competes in the women's gymnastics all-around on Thursday.

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