Suni Lee Breaks Her Silence on MyKayla Skinner's 'Work Ethic' Criticism

Team USA gymnast Suni Lee has broken her silence about controversial comments made by former teammate MyKayla Skinner. 

Lee, 21, addressed a dig made by Skinner, 27, in June, when she said in a since-deleted YouTube video, “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.”

Skinner and Lee were teammates on the 2020 Olympic team that took home all-around silver in Tokyo. 

“We have a lot of love for her, but it’s frustrating to see her put us down because she knows, basically, about every single thing that we’ve all been through,” Lee told Glamour in a story published Thursday, October 3. “It was more annoying because of all the things that I’ve been through.”

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In the year leading up to the 2024 Games, Lee was diagnosed with two types of kidney disease. 

“I wasn’t able to go to the bathroom,” she recalled to Glamour. “I couldn’t bend my legs because they were so swollen, and my fingers too. My eyes were almost swollen shut. I was like, ‘Something is happening.’”

After months of frustration, Lee called USA Gymnastics cohead physician Marcia Faustin who ultimately helped get her tested and diagnosed. 

“It just goes to show the importance of speaking up and advocating for yourself, because if I wouldn’t have, who knows what I would have been doing right now,” Lee said. 

Once Skinner’s comments about the 2024 squad caught fire, they became a bit of a rallying cry for the group, who took home all-around gold in Paris. 

“Lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions ,” Biles, 27, captioned a photo via Instagram after taking home gold alongside teammates Lee, Jade Carey, Hezly Rivera and Jordan Chiles.

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Skinner — who later said her comment was “misinterpreted” and “wasn’t always necessarily about the current team” — returned to social media after Biles’ thinly-veiled jab after winning gold.

“I sincerely hoped that this topic wouldn’t need to be revisited but unfortunately things have really gotten out of hand lately,” Skinner said in a video posted via Instagram August 6. “And it’s one thing to disagree with me regarding something I have said or a point I was trying to make, but it’s something else entirely when that turns into cyber bullying or even worse.”

Skinner continued, “Watching people cheer on the bullying — which has led to threats of physical harm to me, my husband and our daughter — is disgusting. So please at this point, I’m just asking for it to stop for the sake of my family because enough is enough.”