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Did Mykayla Skinner use N-word? Olympian's silver medal win eclipsed by alleged racist tweet

Mykayla Skinner allegedly used the N-word in a tweet and retweeted a pic of her face photoshopped on African-American Gabby Douglas's body

Mykayla Skinner won a silver medal for the United States in the gymnastics events finals at the Olympics on Sunday, August 2. However, her win has been shadowed by her past misdoings, especially the 2016 Rio Olympics, more about that in a bit. Despite her being amongst one of the trending topics on Twitter, one of the top searches about her includes the term 'Mykayla Skinner racist'. 

Mykayla Skinner replaced Simone Biles in Vault at the Tokyo Games on July 30. Skinner is not new to Olympics. She had participated in the games before as an individual but to be a part of Team USA was huge for her. Skinner was about to pack her bag and leave Tokyo after failing to qualify as an individual in the last week of July. However, she received a second shot at winning, this time for Team USA after Biles announced she wouldn't participate because of mental health reasons. 

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Is MyKayla Skinner racist?

MyKayla Skinner's alleged racist behavior has been reported in the past, for example, in an article about why she is one of the most hated gymnasts in the US. Skinner was chosen as the fifth member of the US team at the Rio Games despite a spectacular showing at the trials. Her fans rallied for her and posted mean tweets against Gabby Douglas who they thought deserved to be the alternate instead of Skinner. One of those tweets included a couple of racist emojis along with a picture where Skinner's head was photoshopped on Douglas's body. Skinner retweeted it and ended up sparking a huge controversy for which she later apologized. 

"I'm so sorry if I offended anyone. I was in the wrong by retweeting that tweet! I'm so grateful to be part of the team! Go USA #Rio," she tweeted. In 2019, MyKayla gave judges the death stare and a coach had to intervene to calm her down before she could interact with the judges which is forbidden outside the official presentation lineup. She had received a 9.925 score instead of a full 10, the same as Katelyn Ohashi who lacked the first-pass landing. 

Two days before this could happen, she had tweeted, “So far this season I’ve stuck 5 [Yurchenko] double fulls without both judges giving me a 10. Stay tuned for our meet vs UCLA on Saturday and see if we can make it 6!!” There's a whole Reddit thread about her, the author of which began the post writing they are "appalled" but the idea of Skinner representing the country in Tokyo. "As an Asian-American and person of color, the comments MyKayla made after the 2016 Olympic trials was hurtful to the spirit of the Olympics. Retweeting images of her face photoshopped over Gabby Douglas (our very first African-American all-around champion) and racist emojis, MyKayla has proved time and time again that she is very much in no simpler words - a racist.

"She also retweeted a tweet that contained negativity towards Gabby and several monkey emojis - leaving no room for interpretation on what she thought of an incredibly talented African-American gymnast making the team over her," the post read. It further alleged Skinner had used the N-word in one of her tweets, there was a screenshot linked to the post as well, however, the credibility of the same is unsubstantiated. 

Internet calls MyKayla Skinner 'racist and shady' 

A section of people on the internet refuse to celebrate her Olympics win over her alleged N-word tweet as well as her handling the Gabby Douglas situation in 2016 amongst other things. "Since NBC will definitely try to sell you on the "amazing story " of Mykayla Skinner tonight, just advising you to Google her name along with "Gabby Douglas" to see some wildly racist sh*t from 2016," a tweet read. "Sorry I’ve never root against any athlete in the olympics but Mykayla Skinner getting a chance at a medal after being racist and shady towards teammates in both 2016 and this year doesn’t sit right w me," another user had tweeted after she got named to the team after Biles quit.

After she failed to qualify at the games as an individual this year, Skinner thanked her fans for showing her support through her wins and losses. Hitting back at her at that time, a user tweeted, "Maybe if you weren't a racist anti vaxxer, your body and mind would be in a better place to actually be competitive." Another recent tweet about her reads, "MyKayla Skinner replacing @Simone_Biles just doesn’t sit well with me. She’s a covid denier, a racist, and her husband is a straight up “PLANdemic” activist. We don’t stan. not today satan."