#I wanted to include her dad’s drama with moors but I had reached the pic limit and it distracted from the central focus of MS

[triple-to-stag]

Hey, hope you don't mind me asking a question! I only ever really get a chance to watch gymnastics when the Olympics are on so I'm not very up to date with everything. Is there a reason why so many people online don't like/are not a fan of Mykayla Skinner? 👀

Hi! I don’t mind at all :) I’m a long winded writer, so I apologize for this long post in advance!

My issues came in 2016 with her racist tweets, but only grew as I saw this grown adult woman not try to change her attitude or actions.

First, I think it is important to acknowledge the racist tweet that includes a teenaged white girl tweeting the N-word. She also verbally said it in Snapchat stories. Rumor has it that she got yelled at while at the ranch by USA Gymnastics coaches and officials back before the Rio Olympics, but a rumor is a rumor. She hasn’t addressed it since or shown any strides for changing.

Thoughts about her racism only solidified after she didn’t make the team in 2016, which she seemingly blamed on Gabby. This is despite there already being two stronger floor workers on the team (Simone and Aly) and the highest team score coming from Gabby being on the team. In an act of sheer unsportsmanlike behavior (which one could also argue racist through the use of the monkey emoji next to a white girl emoji) she liked a photo of her photoshopped on the team in place of Gabby Douglas.

Remember too, that she was an alternate and still had to travel with Gabby and technically be her teammate from afar. I made a point of this last night, but when you’re a public figure AND a teammate…you just can’t do shit like this. Even if she ‘accidentally liked it because a fan tagged her,’ it’s still irresponsible of her. She has a platform and that was a choice to like that tweet.

Another blow came when instead of genuinely apologizing, she posted a forced “sorry if you got offended” tweet.

Moving forward to the COVID-19 pandemic, she and her husband lived their lives as normal with her husband even taking an allegedly maskless business vacation which culminated in her actually getting COVID. Her husband had the phrase “plandemic” on his Pelaton account bio so take that as you will with the millions of deaths worldwide.

It’s worthy to note as well that her gymnastics is labored and doesn’t look aesthetically pleasing to the seasoned gymnastics fan. This is primarily rooted in her (lack of) technique and her coaches’ preference for chucking difficult skills rather than building up to them and building form that elite gymnasts are expected to have. Her vlogs have been really telling in this regard.

As for her vault, Her block (the part where she makes contact with that vault table) is infamous for not getting much bounce. She basically did a cheng one handed for a good chunk of her elite career, which is dangerous and makes the vault look small. She’s a fast twister and gets her vaults around, I’ll give her that, but her vaults do not get a ton of height and she really only moves in the horizontal plane.

You’ll see a lot of MS stans say how much she’s improved since going to college…here’s her block in 2016 and 2021

Simone’s Cheng and her Cheng for context. Note how much Simone rises after she makes contact with the table.

Similarly, on bars, beam, and floor, her technique is plagued by bent knees. This, like her block, doesn’t allow her to get that rebound you need for more extended passes with great amplitude. This means she tucks/pikes during legs skills that should be in a layout position. She competes a layout and tucked version of the double double on floor, so it’s been somewhat of a running joke on tumblr hoping that the layout version will get devalued and she gets deducted for doing the same skill twice. While partially out of malice, there’s something to be said about wanting to see beautiful gymnastics get rewarded properly.

In a recent video she couldn’t even properly do a double layout while extended, only further proving this point.

And then that leads us to last night where despite being personally told by Tom and his wife that they were favoring Mykayla leading up to trials (and really throughout this quad…) and get her to the Olympics, she likes anti-Tom tweets. Not to say she can’t be critical of him, but this comes off to me as biting the hand that feeds you. What got to me is that, once again, she liked tweets that put her teammates down to build herself. The irony of this is that even if they did put her on the team over Grace McCallum (Jordan Chiles was a pretty much a lock by the time trials rolled around) the US still would’ve qualified second. She still would’ve got 2 pc’d out of finals. But most agree it’s because she just realized that she won’t be going home with any medals.

TLDR: Despite having ample opportunity to take accountability and improve herself and her gymnastics, she doesn’t and frames herself as the victim for it.

If I you have any questions, I’ll try my best to answer them!!!

And if I forgot anything, please feel free to add it!