Mikayla Skinner-Hammer sends a plea to Simone Biles.
Simone Biles and the rest of the USA Gymnastics team won 7 Olympic medals for their amazing performances. Three of them are gold.
However, just a few weeks ago, MyKayla Skinner Harmer Technically Never made the Olympic team except as a reserve player, causing controversy by attacking current gymnasts. Simone Biles clapped back.
Now, Michaela is asking Simone to save her from the online backlash. Is she doing all this for herself? Is this really Simone’s responsibility?
Remember Michaela Skinner Hammer?
MyKayla was an alternate at the 2016 Olympics. That year, she was at the center of controversy for editing a photo of Team USA gymnast Gabby Douglas. The accompanying racist emojis didn’t help.
She then competed in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics (as an individual) and won a silver medal in the vault.
Aside from die-hard gymnastics fans, many people had forgotten about MyKayla Skinner Harmer until recently. In a now-deleted YouTube video, MyKayla lashed out at Team USA gymnasts.
Are Olympians often “lazy” people?
MyKayla Skinner Harmer has accused the Olympic gymnasts who will represent the United States at the 2024 Paris Games as “lazy” and unathletic.
“I don’t think the talent or depth is what it used to be,” she claims. “Mind you, I mean, obviously a lot of girls don’t work that hard. These girls just don’t have a work ethic. That seems patently untrue.
McKellar also suggested that the safety rules put in place after Dr. Nassar committed many of his crimes somehow made the team worse. It’s hard to understand why Michaela takes these positions or what she hopes to gain by sharing them.
Simone Biles takes the high road
Simone Biles, for her part, had a mild reaction. For example, she didn’t call McKayla Skinner-Hammer by her first name.
Instead, she added a tongue-in-cheek Instagram caption underneath a photo of herself and other Team USA gymnasts.
“Lack of talent, lazy, Olympic champion,” she described. Other past and present Olympians (especially McKayla Maroney)
Now, MyKayla Skinner Harmer is pleading with Simone Biles to ask fans and followers to leave her alone
On Tuesday, August 6, MyKayla took to Instagram to address Simone Biles directly. While the two women did meet at the Tokyo Olympics, one can only assume they have no contact information for each other.
Michaela lamented what she called a “tidal wave of hate speech,” including what she called “death threats.”
“Simona, I ask you directly and publicly to put a stop to this,” she pleaded.
Mikayla Skinner-Hammer hopes the backlash will end
“Please ask your followers to stop, you have been an incredible champion for mental health awareness and now so many people need your help,” Michaela Skinner-Hammer pleaded.
“We’ve been hurt and attacked in ways I’m sure you never expected,” she said of herself and her family.
We’re also sure Simone Biles has no intention of doing any such thing. However, it sounds like MyKayla thinks SIMone is somehow responsible.
She claims to have been threatened
MyKayla Skinner Harmer said: “It’s disgusting to see people cheering on bullying – which has resulted in threats of physical harm to me, my husband and our daughter.” “So please at this point, for the sake of my family, I’m just asking that it stop because enough is enough.”
She also tried to walk back her previous comments, emphasizing: “I know these women are incredible – the best of the best – and almost all of them are former teammates of mine that I’ve really enjoyed over the past few years. Cheer for them.
“If Simone truly believed that I called our team lazy and untalented, if she truly believed that, I would be really sad,” she lamented.
It’s unclear how this could be Simone’s fault
“But it’s not just heartbreaking, because that’s not how I feel or even what I said before, but because Simone’s latest post and others that followed sparked yet another wave of hateful comments,” Michaela Skinner Hammer claimed.
“The hate included death threats against me, my family, and even my agent,” she continued. “My family and friends should not have been caught in the crossfire here. They did nothing.
We certainly hope that any threats of death or violence stop. While it’s hard to see how this has anything to do with Simone Biles, let alone taking responsibility, a threat is not an appropriate response.
