MyKayla Skinner’s experience at the Tokyo Olympics

Arizona gymnast MyKayla Skinner won the silver medal on the vault at the Tokyo Olympics after stepping in for Simone Biles. She is from Gilbert and trains at Desert Lights Gymnastics. We talked with her about her experience at this year’s Olympics.

We asked her how it feels to have won an Olympic Silver medal. She explained that it felt amazing but also feels like it didn’t happen. She said she is trying to let it all sink in.

She said she worked so hard for that moment and that it was unexpected that she was able to go into vault finals. She said Simone going through what she did give her that chance to step up and do vault.

She said it was nice to be able to go out and compete one last time after she thought she was going home. She said standing up on the podium, representing the United States was a great feeling.

She tells the story o how she found out she was doing vault and when she realized it may have been a reality. She said it was very exciting to step in for Biles. We asked if finding out last second helped her focus.

Skinner said that it actually was really hard to adjust back into full competition mode. She even said she was eating pasta and dessert before she found out. We talked about the support she received and how that went.

Skinner said they didn’t get to have any spectators, so it was a little weird. She said she could feel her family pulling for her. Skinner said she felt bad Simone Biles couldn’t compete, but Biles was very supportive of her.

We talked about her journey before and what she had to deal with. She dealt with COVID and Nimonia. She also talks about her retirement. She will be having Biles’ tour but other than that she said she will be done. She also said she is ready to be done.