MYKAYLA Skinner has been backed by her husband amid an ongoing social media feud with Simone Biles.
Jonas Harmer said he was “proud” of the former Team USA gymnast after she faced a barrage of death threats in the wake of the viral spat.
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“Proud of you for apologizing when you did, staying quiet when you did, and now standing up for yourself,” said Harmer, who has competed on American Ninja Warrior.
“You’re the strongest person I know!”
Skinner has faced heat for criticizing the Team USA gymnastics squad prior to the Paris Olympics.
“Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t like what it used to be,” Skinner said in a now deleted YouTube video.
Read more on Simone Biles
“Just notice like, I mean, obviously a lot of girls don’t work as hard. The girls just don’t have the work ethic.”
And Biles didn’t let her former teammate forget the comment after Team USA won the women’s team all-around event.
Biles called out Skinner in an Instagram caption after the team’s gold medal glory, writing “Lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions.”
Skinner has revealed that she has since faced death threats and cyberbullying, and has asked Biles to reel her fans in.
“Simone, I am asking you directly and publicly, to please put a stop to this,” Skinner said.
“Please ask your followers to stop, you have been an incredible champion for mental health awareness and a lot of people need your help now.
“We’ve been hurt and attacked in ways that I am certain you never intended.
“Watching people cheer on the bullying — which has led to threats of physical harm to me, my husband, and our daughter — is disgusting.
“So please at this point, I’m just asking for it to just stop for the sake of my family because enough is enough.”
Skinner, a silver medalist at the Tokyo Olympics, insisted that she wasn’t calling the team lazy, and that she just poorly articulated her words.
She also claimed in her video that only one of the Team USA athletes has reached out to her since they won gold in Paris.
“Only Simone had responded and she told me that she was proud of me,” she said.
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“You guys can imagine my surprise last week when I was celebrating our team winning gold just to see this brought up all over again by a caption on an Instagram post.
“If Simone truly believes that I called our team lazy and lacking talent and if that’s really how she feels, I am really heartbroken over it.
“But not just heartbroken because it isn’t what I feel or even how I previously said, but because Simone’s latest post and others that followed it fueled another wave of hateful comments, DMs, articles and emails.
“Hate that includes death threats to me, my family and even my agent.
“My family and my friends don’t deserve to be caught in the crossfire here. They’ve done nothing.”
Biles defended her actions to stand up for her teammates in an interview with People magazine.
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“It’s important because you have to teach them to use their voices,” Biles said.
“And if not, you’re a voice for the voiceless, which is OK.
“I just felt like it was right in that moment to stand up for them, because they’re so young and they haven’t fully stood in their power yet.”
Biles also revealed that Skinner blocked her on Instagram.
