MyKayla Skinner Apologizes Again After Backlash for Shading USA Gymnastics Team

MyKayla Skinner is walking back her previous comments.

Though the gymnast previously apologized for her disparaging remarks regarding the 2024 USA Olympic gymnastics team, MyKayla further clarified her intention in a lengthy social media statement.

“It was not my intention to offend or disrespect any of the athletes or to take away from their hard work,” she wrote on X July 6. “Your hard work and dedication has paid off and I congratulate each and every one of you.”

The 27-year-old—who earned a silver medal at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo after being an alternate in 2016—also noted the ways in which her feelings about this year’s team, which consists of Simone Biles, Suni Lee, Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles and Hezly Rivera, made her think back on her own experiences under coach Márta Károlyi.

Márta and her husband Béla Károlyi coached gymnastics for over 20 years, during which multiple athletes came forward claiming they endured various types of abuse under the couple’s tutelage.

photos2024 Paris Olympics: See the U.S. Team’s Uniforms for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies 

“Upon reflection I was comparing the ‘Marta Era’ to the current era,” she continued. “I am coming to terms that I have not fully dealt with the emotional and verbal abuse I endured under Marta that perhaps led to my hurtful comments. I take full responsibility for what I said and I deeply apologize.”

E! News has reached out to Márta for comment but has not yet heard back.

Jamie Squire/Getty Images

MyKayla continued, while expressing her well wishes for this year’s team at Paris, “It is most important to me that the sport I love continue down the path of healing and ensure a positive environment for all.”

In a since-deleted YouTube video reacting to the gymnastics trials, MyKayla reflected on the new era of gymnastics in the United States.

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

And she suggested U.S. Center for SafeSport, a non-profit created in order to help end abuse in athletics, was part of the reason for this perceived lack of effort.

"The girls just don't have the work ethic," she added. "And it's hard too because of SafeSport. Like, coaches can't get on athletes and they have to be really careful what they say. Which, in some ways is really good, but at the same time, to get to where you need to be in gymnastics you do have to be, I feel like, a little aggressive and a little intense."

But after her video received backlash on social media, MyKayla apologized in a July 3 Instagram Story.

"I feel like a lot of you guys had misinterpreted or misunderstood exactly what I was meaning or had said," she said. "A lot of the stuff that I was talking about wasn't always necessarily about the current team, because I love and support all the girls that made it and I'm so proud of them."

Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

“It was more about going back into my own gym,” she continued, noting how the “work ethic is different" than when the team worked under Márta’s instruction.

“And I'm not sticking up for Márta or saying what she did was good, I'm just saying it was different,” MyKayla explained. "Sorry for anything that got out of context or seemed hurtful. Throughout the video, I was so pumped for the girls and it was so fun watching trials and doing a live with everybody.”

For more on where MyKayla, this year’s team and other former Team USA gymnasts are today, keep reading.