MyKayla Skinner wasn’t ready for that Fox News interview with Will Cain, despite her communications and journalism degree from the University of Utah and years of being in the world spotlight as an Olympic gymnast.
“I was so nervous,” she said by phone from Arizona, where she was vacationing with family.
Skinner, 28, is used to the stress of athletic competition, and she’s long had to deal with rude social-media comments, having been through a controversy last year arising from Olympic-related commentary she made on YouTube.
But she’s learning that being front and center in a highly charged political debate, as she’s been for the past week, is something quite different.
The Utah mom became part of the conversation about transgender athletes in women’s sports when a statement she provided to One America News Network went viral June 13. In the statement, Skinner expressed support for Riley Gaines, the former University of Kentucky swimmer and host of the “Gaines for Girls” show on OutKick, whose recent online feud with Simone Biles made national headlines.
Gaines became a national figure in the debate soon after tying for fifth place with transgender swimmer Lia Thomas during the NCAA championships in 2022.
Now Skinner, who says she has long admired Gaines but until now was reluctant to speak out, has become part of that debate, too.
In a conversation with the Deseret News, Skinner talked about why she changed her mind about staying silent, her relationship with former Team USA teammate Simone Biles, her feelings about marriage and motherhood, and where that cherished Olympic silver medal is now.
The conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
Deseret News: Thank you for taking the time to talk. I know you have had many interview requests, and I saw the interview you did on “The Will Cain Show” on Fox News.
MyKayla Skinner: I was so nervous. It’s scary to speak up with everything going on. I don’t want to say anything wrong, and I want to come from a good place ... people can take things the wrong way. I’d been up late the night before, playing games with my family, and I was tired. So it was just really terrifying. But I’m so glad they gave me the opportunity to do it.
DN: You had to know that this would be controversial to come out and make this statement. What conversations did you have with your husband in advance, knowing that you would take some heat for what you said?
MS: This is the crazy thing ... I can’t tell you the specifics because he had to sign an NDA, but he was on a TV show, and I couldn’t even talk to my husband about it because he was gone for 12 days and didn’t have his cellphone.
I support Riley 100%. I love what she’s doing. I love that she’s advocating for women’s sports. I have a daughter now, and she’s going to maybe be doing sports and growing up in this world, and I want it to be fair. Even a year ago, I talked about it with Jonas. I wanted to support Riley, but I’ve already had so much backlash throughout my career, and so it’s just really scary. But I am tired of being belittled and bullied, and I want to be able to stop cyberbullying and bullying in general.
DN: In the statement, you said Simone Biles belittled you and ostracized you. (Biles has not publicly responded to the post.) Can you go into more detail about that?
MS: I’ve known Simone since I was 12 years old - we went to training camps together. We’ve been teammates for a very long time. There have been times when I’ve really been affected by this.
The biggest thing was last year, during the Olympics, when I did commentary on my YouTube channel, and something that I said got taken out of context. Simone started it (with a caption on Instagram), and the bullying continued, and it was just horrible. I even had death threats. ... I couldn’t function, I couldn’t take care of my daughter, it was just really, really hard to go through.
I apologized publicly three times. I talked to Simone, I sent text messages to the girls, and I take full responsibility for everything I said. But I got no responses, and it almost felt like a death to me — I lost people that I loved and cared about. We had to take the video down. .. but if you watched the whole thing, you could see how what I said was taken out of context. We were rooting for the girls, I was saying, “Team USA is going to do awesome, I can’t wait to watch.” But the second that video came out, they took one part of it and ran with it. It was just so sad because it took a whole different turn. It was a really hard time.
But like I said, enough is enough. I’m tired of not being able to have a voice. And Riley has taught me to have a voice, to stand up. And I hope I can help other people see that they have a voice as well.
DN: Have you heard anything from Simone over the past year?
MS: No, not a word.
DN: Is that upsetting to you?
MS: At this point, no, I don’t really think about it. I just think it’s time to move on. People are going to have their opinions. But God knows me, he knows my intentions, he knows my heart. And all I can do is move on.
DN: How did your statement about Riley Gaines come about? Did OAN reach out to you and ask for comment, or did you release it to them?
MS: I released it to them. That just felt like the right way to go.
DN: You’ve not been political in the past, have you?
MS: I have never shared anything political. I try to stay away from that. I don’t know where this will take me. I’m just going to take this one day at a time. When the time is right, I just want to be an advocate for mental wellness. But right now, I have a wonderful husband and a beautiful daughter, and I’m just moving on with life. I get to be me. Gymnastics was the past — winning a silver medal was amazing, but there’s so more to life than gymnastics, and I get to have that with my family. There are so many things I have to look forward to now.
DN: Tell me about your daughter and what development stage she is in now.
MS: My daughter, Charlotte — we call her Lottie — is almost 2, and we’re taking a Mommy and Me gymnastics class. She loves it. But who knows? My husband is 6′7′'. So I don’t know if my daughter will be a gymnast or want to pursue it, but I think that gymnastics teaches you so many life lessons, hard work, determination, discipline. I think it’s good for their development, motor skills, balance. I hope she does it for a little bit, but I’m happy if she doesn’t want to do sports. She might be more into music.
DN: So you graduated from the University of Utah while you were still pregnant, in 2023, right? What are you going to do with that degree?
MS: I keep asking myself that question!
I’m a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and we get married young and have kids ... I became an aunt at (age) 10. So for me, I just wanted to be a mom. Tom Farden, when he was head coach at Utah and was recruiting me, he would come to my house and say “what do you want to study, what do you want to do with your life?” And I would say, “I don’t really want to go to college, I just want to be a mom.”
And as of right now, I just want to be a mom. But I just also want to remind the next generation that even though I haven’t used my degree, it is important to get a college education, to have it.
I have a learning disability, and school was hard for me. I struggled. I was embarrassed. I had a hard time with memorization, with pronouncing words. I was on an IEP and had to have tutors.
But I pushed through it and got my degree, and I’m so glad that I did. Being a Utah Ute was an incredible experience.
But right now, I’m a stay-at-home mom, and I’m still trying to figure out who I am and what’s next for me.
DN: So where is your silver medal displayed?
MS: It’s so sad, it’s just in a drawer.
The medal is amazing, and I will cherish it forever. I remember standing on that Olympic podium, and I was just so happy. It was everything I’d dreamed of since I was a little girl. ... But being a mom is so much more than that. Even if I never won an Olympic medal, I’m living my dream now.