Three years ago, when Simone Biles withdrew from the U.S. women’s gymnastics team final at the Tokyo Olympics to focus on her mental health, she faced a barrage of criticism, including from right-wing pundits who called her “weak” and “selfish.”

On Tuesday, Biles led Team USA to a triumphant gold medal after they scored a nearly six-point win over their competitors.

In an Instagram post later in the day, Biles appeared to respond to critics, writing “lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions” alongside photos of her and her teammates Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera celebrating their win on the floor.

Biles’ caption appeared to be a pointed reference to her former teammate Mykayla Skinner’s comments last month. In a now-deleted YouTube video, Skinner — who replaced Biles in the 2020 team final after she withdrew — criticized the team, saying “a lot of girls don’t work as hard.”

“Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t like what it used to be,” Skinner said. “The girls just don’t have the work ethic.”

She later posted a statement apologizing for her comments.

The team’s gold medal Tuesday was a victorious comeback after winning silver in the last Olympics. Several of the Team USA gymnasts had overcome significant mental and physical health issues in recent years: Biles publicly struggled with the “twisties,” which led to her stepping down from the last Olympics’ team final; Lee, who won the Olympic all-around title in Tokyo, was diagnosed with two kidney diseases last year; and Chiles, who has grappled with the expectations in gymnastics, had considered letting go of the sport.

Biles’ withdrawal from the Tokyo team final, in particular, drew intense criticism from conservatives, many of whom jumped on the opportunity to turn her into a culture war villain despite showing no understanding of the rigorous demands of professional sports. Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk called her a “selfish sociopath,” North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson said she was “weak,” and JD Vance, who was running for the Senate at the time and is now Donald Trump’s running mate, questioned why people were praising Biles for putting her mental health first.

Biles, 27, became the most decorated gymnast in U.S. history with her team’s gold medal Tuesday. So far, no word from her critics on that.

U.S. Olympic Gymnasts Celebrate Win by Invoking Kanye West’s 2005 Grammy Speech

Gold medalists Simone Biles, Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles, Sunisa Lee, and Hezly Rivera (from left) of Team USA. – Credit: Jean Catuffe/Getty Images
Team USA have thrown it back to the 2005 Grammys to celebrate their shiny new Olympic medals. The women’s gymnastics team — Simone Biles, Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles, Sunisa Lee, and Hezly Rivera — won gold Tuesday and have been enjoying the glory on social media ever since.

In a popular TikTok post created by Lee, the fivesome invoked Kanye West’s infamous Grammy speech, which has become a wildly shared meme in the years since. In 2005, West took home the Grammy for Best Rap Album for The College Dropout. Onstage, the rapper admitted he thought the audience might be expecting him to do something weird.

“I know everybody’s asking the question — they wanted know ‘I know he’s going to wild out, I know he’s going to do something crazy,’” he said. “Everybody wanted to know what I would do if I didn’t win. I guess we’ll never know.”

Lee’s video sees the gymnasts using West’s audio in two parts, first without their medals as they mouth, “Everybody wanted to know what I would do if I didn’t win.” The video then transitions to a clip of the team with their medals, grinning and mouthing, “I guess we’ll never know.”

Biles posted her own celebratory clip of Team USA pretending to bite their medals to the sounds of crunching, while Chiles danced to Megan Thee Stallion’s “Cognac Queen” alongside Lee.

The women’s gymnastics team won gold during women’s gymnastics team final on Tuesday at Paris’ Bercy Arena. The victory was especially poignant because the team took home silver during the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 after Biles withdrew from the team final due to suffering from “the twisties.” “I think we all had something to prove from Tokyo,” Biles said following the event. “And tonight we did just that.”

Biles spoke about the mental stress of the 2021 Games in her new four-part Netflix documentary, Simone Biles Rising, which chronicles her return to the Olympics this year. “I knew I wasn’t done after the performances in Tokyo,” Biles told press at the recent U.S. Olympic trials, where she won the all-around. “This is definitely our redemption tour. I feel like we all have more to give.”

Chiles is a longtime fan of Megan Thee Stallion and recently received a bouquet from the rapper following the Olympic trials. “I was not expecting it,” Chiles told Rolling Stone. “When my brother brought them in I was like, ‘There ain’t no way this girl done sent me flowers!’ I was getting teary-eyed because it made me feel like somebody was actually recognizing the hard work that I put in. She’s definitely my H-town sister, for sure.”

She added, “This is a redemption tour for the four of us on the Olympic team. Of course, we want to be able to come back with gold medals. But we’re testing ourselves. This is something we wanted so bad. So why not do it? Why not go out there and just be us? I don’t feel overwhelmed. I feel like I’m in the right spot at the right time. But I would love to [be with] my Mickey ears and my gold medal smiling next to the Paris Disney Castle.”