There’s drama in Team USA gymnastics world — here’s everything you need to know.
So, on Tuesday 30 July, the USA won gold in the artistic gymnastics women’s team final at the Paris 2024 Olympics, beating Italy (silver) and Brazil (bronze).
After their big win, three-time Olympian Simone Biles posted a photo of herself on Instagram with teammates Jordan Chiles, Hezly Rivera, Jade Carey, and Sunisa “Suni” Lee, with the caption, “lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions.”
This was seemingly a pointed response aimed at former teammate MyKayla Skinner, who received widespread criticism online when in June, she said in a YouTube video (via Us Weekly): “Besides Simone [Biles], I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t what it used to be. I mean, obviously, a lot of girls don’t work as hard. The girls just don’t have the work ethic.”
The reference wasn’t lost on Team USA fans, including former Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney, who commented on Simone’s post: “It doesn’t get more iconic than this.. She f’d around n found out fr. Feels like I need to apologize just to redeem my first name”
Another fan said: “THIS CAPTION WINS A GOLD MEDAL”
And Simone’s husband Jonathan Owens wrote: “F AROUND AND FIND OUT”
If you’re wondering why that expression keeps coming up, it’s because Simone just revealed what she and her teammates call themselves, and it’s — you guessed it — “F*** around and find out.”
Simone and MyKayla have previously competed in two Olympics together, Rio in 2016, and Tokyo in 2021.
After MyKayla’s comments caused controversy online, she issued an apology on Instagram on 6 July, writing: “I want to formally apologize to Team USA and to our gymnastic community for my comments … It was not my intention to offend or disrespect any of the athletes or to take away from their hard work.”
And on Tuesday, MyKayla reshared a photo of the current Team USA on her Instagram Stories, along with three heart emojis, showing that the athletes have her support.
