After a heated back-and-forth online, Simone Biles tried to ease tensions with a heartfelt apology. “These are sensitive, complicated issues that I truly don’t have the answers or solutions to, but I believe it starts with empathy and respect,” she wrote, finally putting a rest to a long-stretched debate after Riley Gaines’ comments on fairness in women’s sports. But just as things seemed to be settling, a new voice stepped into the conversation. This is MyKayla Skinner, Biles’ former Olympic teammate. How?
The official Instagram handle of The Will Cain Show posted a reel in collaboration with the gymnast on June 16, 2025, where she dropped her thoughts on the Riley Gaines Controversy. She said, “Stand by Riley and for the amazing way that she is helping athletes to fight for women, and now that I have a daughter, it really helps me to want to stand by Riley’s side because I want the future of women’s gymnastics and women’s sports in general to have fairness, and that she is able to speak up and stand for us to be able to have fairness in women’s sports is amazing, and I’m so grateful for it and for the future of my daughter and future women athletes.”
On September 22, 2023, MyKayla Skinner and her husband Jonas Harmer welcomed their first child, their daughter Charlotte Jane Harmer. And seeing the Riley Gaines controversy, she wants a safe future for her. All of this comes right after she called her former Olympic teammate a bully, adding another angle to the Simone Biles-Mykayla Skinner controversy.
MyKayla Skinner called out Simone Biles
One America News made a tweet on June 13, 2025, citing it as an official statement from MyKayla Skinner. It read, “As an athlete who has dedicated years to a sport, I’ve always believed that true competition should elevate us, not diminish others.” She then called out Biles’ sore loser comment over Gaines, as troubling as the latter was, only expressing concerns about fairness in women’s sports.
On June 6, Riley Gaines criticized a Minnesota high school softball team that included a transgender pitcher. In response, Biles called her “truly sick” and “a straight‑up sore loser”—linking it to Gaines’s 2022 NCAA tie with trans swimmer Lia Thomas.
In the statement, Skinner appreciated Gaines for “having the courage to speak up.” She said that she is not only standing for fairness, but for the future of female athletics itself. After this, the gymnast added, “Throughout my own career, I endured being belittled, dismissed, and ostracized behind the scenes by Simone. The pressure to stay silent was immense. I kept quiet out of respect—for the sport, for my teammates, and for the ideal of unity among athletes.” She then said she broke her silence because public shaming from a person of influence was unacceptable to her. “It’s another to use your platform to bully and demean,” she said. She clarified that there should be no punishment for anybody standing for fairness. But it does not end here.
In the Will Cain Show, citing these statements, the gymnast was asked if this happened while she was a teammate with Simone Biles. Replying to that she said, “yes, multiple times throughout different moments in my career and it has been very hard and very difficult and this is why I wanted to speak out obviously with the Olympics going on, that was a major experience that I went through and very difficult and I want to continue to help cyberully come to an end. “
The post MyKayla Skinner Sends Strong Message After Calling Out Simone Biles Amid Riley Gaines Controversy appeared first on EssentiallySports.