After finishing in silver medal position in Tokyo, the U.S. women’s gymnastics team arrived in Paris looking to reassert themselves as the dominant force in women’s gymnastics. Their silver medal performance was influenced heavily by Simone Biles having to pull out of the team competition due to the twisties, and in 2024, Biles was back and looking as dominant as ever.
On Tuesday, Biles, Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey, and Hezly Rivera made their statement, winning team gold in emphatic fashion, finishing five points above Italy. It was a dazzling display of dominance on the four events, capped off with Simone Biles taking center stage as the final competitor with her spectacular floor routine to put an exclamation point on the win.
Afterwards, the ladies had plenty of fun on social media, including Biles who had been waiting some time to clap back at former teammate MyKayla Skinner with her Instagram caption of the gold medal winning team.
The caption was in response to Skinner calling the rest of the team out for a lack of talent and work ethic in a since-deleted video — but the internet is forever, so it’s been reposted by other accounts.
Part 1: The gymnastics community cannot let these comments to be swept under the rug. I will be as respectful as possible to @mykaylaskinner but instead of engaging in meaningful conversation she blocks anyone who holds her accountable for her words. pic.twitter.com/Y69pwCxnUG
— Riley (@gymguyri) July 3, 2024
“Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t like what it used to be. Just notice like, I mean, obviously a lot of girls don’t work as hard. The girls just don’t have the work ethic.”
It’s not often a team with two Olympic all-around gold medalists — Biles and Lee — get to go on a revenge tour against doubters, but they’ve taken full advantage of the chatter around the team over the last few years to fuel their fire to prove they’re still the best in the world by a good margin. That’s why the team’s internal nickname was “Team F*** Around And Find Out”, although Biles amended that on Twitter to be the “Golden Girls”, playing on the fact they’re an older group than most gymnastics squads.
Skinner’s response was to block Simone on Instagram, which the GOAT found very funny.
oop I’ve been blocked
— Simone Biles (@Simone_Biles) July 31, 2024
mykayla skinner talked all that shit just to be a coward and block simone
pic.twitter.com/taw9RcYegN
— kaleigh (@kaleighonline) July 31, 2024