Olympics legend Simone Biles is standing by her criticisms of former Team USA teammate MyKayla Skinner.
Biles issued her opinion to People magazine, mere moments before Skinner took to social media to reveal she had received death threats from trolls.
Biles put Skinner in the crosshairs after Skinner criticized the Olympic gymnast team ahead of the Paris Games. After Team USA won the team gold medal in Paris, Biles captured an Instagram comment, “Lack of talent, lazy Olympic champions” in reference to Skinner’s previous comments.
Biles defended her actions on Tuesday. She said it was important to teach fellow gymnasts to defend themselves.
“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. For somebody to stand up, I know it meant a lot for my teammates.”
Moments later, Skinner took to social media to ask online trolls to stop sending her death threats.
“So, to Simone, I am asking you directly and publicly to please put a stop to this.
“Why I’m here is because four weeks ago, I made a comment about work ethic and what seems to be taking place with the rising generation,” Skinner said.
‘To be totally clear, I take 100 percent [responsibility] for poorly articulating the point I was trying to make,’ she said. “The last thing I wanted was to cause harm or offend our US Olympic Team.”
Biles did not immediately respond to the request.
[People]
