Simone Biles is no more impressed with the new CEO of USA Gymnastics than she was the last one. The reigning Olympic champion expressed her displeasure with Mary Bono on Saturday for a tweet the interim CEO and president posted last month. Bono's tweet included a photo of her blacking out the Nike logo on her golf shoes in what appears to be a criticism of Nike's endorsement deal with Colin Kaepernick. “Mouth drop,” Biles wrote on Twitter. “Don’t worry, it’s not like we needed a smarter usa gymnastics president or any sponsors or anything.” Bono’s post was made Sept. 7, a month before she was named interim CEO. But that no one thought to delete it before her appointment was announced Friday afternoon was considered particularly tone-deaf, given that USA Gymnastics remains without an apparel sponsor, and Biles is a Nike athlete. Under Armour was one of several big-name sponsors USA Gymnastics lost in the fallout over the Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal. The longtime team physician for USA Gymnastics and Michigan State molested hundreds of girls and young women, including Biles and fellow Final Five teammates Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas and Madison Kocian. Nassar is serving an effective life sentence after pleading guilty to federal child pornography charges and state charges of sexual abuse. Critics of the federation also questioned how receptive Bono might be to listening to athletes if she was critical of Kaepernick’s protests. While Bono didn't mention Kaepernick in her tweet, it came two days after Nike unveiled its new commercial with him. In a statement released late Saturday by USA Gymnastics, Bono said, "I deeply regret posting the Tweet because I respect everyone’s views and their fundamental right to express them. "This in no way reflects how I will approach my position at USA Gymnastics," she added. "I will do everything I can to help change the culture and to work with the entire community to build an open, safe and positive environment.” Still it was the latest in a long series of missteps by USA Gymnastics. USA Gymnastics has struggled to move beyond the Nassar crisis, and doubts about its sincerity in making the cultural changes necessary to protect athletes led to the ouster of the last two CEOs. Biles has been particularly critical of the federation and its executives, and her status as the greatest gymnast of all time gives her opinion added weight. MORE:In least-surprising news ever, Simone Biles makes team for world gymnastics championships USA Gymnastics didn’t abandon the Karolyi Ranch, where some of Nassar’s abuse occurred, until Biles said she didn’t want to return. She was unsparing when asked at the national championships in August what she thought of the leadership of then-CEO Kerry Perry. “That’s a good question. I’m not so sure yet,” Biles said. “Hopefully it’s going in the right direction, but nobody can know until Kerry Perry speaks up. So it’s kind of hard.” Biles also refused to provide cover when Perry tried to say she’d had several “interactions” with Biles and her parents. And when USA Gymnastics failed to do anything to honor survivors at nationals, Biles made a statement by wearing a teal leotard in their honor. Perry resigned Sept. 4 under pressure from the U.S. Olympic Committee.<doc-sep>A day after U.S.A. Gymnastics appointed an interim leader to help move the sport beyond months of tumult and scandal, the organization again found itself embroiled in controversy on Saturday — and facing criticism from one of the sport’s biggest stars. The new leader, Mary Bono, came under fire for an anti-Nike tweet that she posted in September, days after the company announced an ad campaign featuring Colin Kaepernick, the former N.F.L. quarterback who knelt during the national anthem to protest racial inequality and police killings of black people. As critics pledged to boycott Nike products, Ms. Bono shared a photo of herself using a marker to black out the Nike logo on her golf cleats. Simone Biles, who won four gold medals and a bronze at the 2016 Olympics and who will compete for the United States in this year’s world championships, resurfaced the tweet with a critical post of her own on Saturday.<doc-sep>The newly appointed head of USA Gymnastics resigned just four days after being named to the job on Tuesday following stinging criticism of her appointment by Olympic stars Simone Biles and Alexandra Raisman. Former Republican politician Mary Bono, who had only been revealed as interim chief of the embattled governing body on Friday, said she was quitting over "personal attacks" that made her position untenable. "It is with profound regret, coupled with a deep love for the sport of gymnastics and respect for those who aspire to be great gymnasts, that I today tendered my resignation as the Interim CEO of USA Gymnastics," Bono said in a statement. "My withdrawal comes in the wake of personal attacks that left undefended, would have made my leading USAG a liability for the organization." Bono's future in her new role had looked increasingly precarious after criticism by both Biles and Raisman following her appointment. The 56-year-old executive drew the ire of Olympic superstar Biles over a tweet posted by Bono last month in which she was critical of apparel maker Nike following the company's ad campaign featuring ex-NFL star Colin Kaepernick. Bono posted a photo of herself blacking out a Nike logo on a golf shoe as she took part in a charity golf tournament to honor members of the US military. In response, the Nike-sponsored Biles tweeted on Saturday: "*mouth drop* ... don't worry, it's not like we needed a smarter usa gymnastics president, or any sponsors or anything." - 'Survivors deserve better' - Raisman, meanwhile, blasted the decision to hire Bono on Monday in a series of strongly worded posts on Twitter that drew attention to the executive's previous work with law firm Faegre Baker Daniels. Raisman alleged that the legal company had advised USA Gymnastics during the Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal, asserting that the company had helped "cover up" the former team doctor's crimes before they erupted into public view. "Survivors, current gymnasts, families, coaches, gymnastics community & fans deserve better," wrote Raisman, one of more than 250 athletes abused by Nassar, who was jailed for life earlier this year. Raisman, an Olympic gold medallist in 2012 and 2016, is suing both USA Gymnastics and the United States Olympic Committee over the scandal. - 'Fire in the belly' - In her resignation statement on Tuesday, Bono defended her work with Faegre Baker Daniels as well as her criticism of Kaepernick, whose decision to kneel during the US national anthem in order to draw attention to racial injustice has been criticised by some as disrespectful to the military and unpatriotic. "I proudly stand behind my body of work at Faegre Baker Daniels, and appreciated how much the law firm supported my devoting considerable time to the cause of addiction prevention, treatment and recovery," Bono said. "With respect to Mr Kaepernick, he nationally exercised his first amendment right to kneel. I exercised mine: to mark over on my own golf shoes, the logo of the company sponsoring him." Bono, meanwhile, said she believed she could have made a success of the job, citing her own experience as a young gymnast of seeing at first-hand what she described as the "assaulting behavior of a coach." "I would have brought a fire in the belly to ensure that no one as taken with gymnastics as I was at that age, should have to choose between abuse and ambition, or between properly speaking out and promoting success." United States Olympic Committee chief Sarah Hirshland described the debacle surrounding Bono's departure as "unfortunate." "The USOC is committed to working hard with the USAG board to find the right leader who can build gymnastics up to the world-class organization we know that it can and should be," Hirshland said in a statement. Raisman, meanwhile, gave an icy response to Bono's departure, which comes as the USA team prepares for the October 25 World Championships in Doha. "The Olympic family fails us again," Raisman wrote on Twitter. "Another poor hire + familiar statements. Don't worry, USAG/USOC will search for the right leader…again. "Meanwhile, gymnasts prepare for World Championships during another organizational leadership crisis. But hey, athletes are the top priority." Bono's whirlwind tenure is another humiliating body blow to USA Gymnastics, which has lurched from one self-inflicted crisis to the next as it struggles to rebuild in the aftermath of the Nassar scandal. Bono took over after USA Gymnastics was forced to part company with chief executive Kerry Perry last month. Perry resigned under pressure from the US Olympic Committee after only nine months in the job. Her departure came after the appointment and resignation of elite coach Mary Lee Tracy -- who had made comments supportive of Nassar in 2016 when allegations of abuse against him had begun to emerge.<doc-sep>Biles is among the more than 200 women who have come forward over the last two years claiming they were sexually abused by former team doctor Larry Nassar under the guise of treatment. Biles was critical of Perry for not being vocal enough in support of the survivors.<doc-sep>
USA Gymnastics just can't seem to get out of its own way when it comes to establishing new leadership. The honeymoon lasted just one day for USA Gymnastics interim President Mary Bono, who was appointed on Friday and came under fire from the sport's biggest star on Saturday. Simone Biles, a four-time Olympics gold medalist and the only woman in history with 10 World Championship golds, responded to a tweet by Bono from earlier this year in which she posted a photo of her drawing over the Nike swoosh logo on a pair of shoes in protest of the company using Colin Kaepernick in an ad campaign. Biles responded with "mouth drop" before saying, "Don’t worry, it’s not like we needed a smarter usa gymnastics president or any sponsors or anything." Bono deleted the tweet hours later and issued an apology. "I regret the post and respect everyone’s views & fundamental right to express them," she tweeted. "This doesn’t reflect how I will approach my position @USAGym I will do everything I can to help build, w/ the community, an open, safe & positive environment. "Hey all, I know the Tweet will live on but have taken it down to move the focus to all I hope to accomplish on behalf of a great sport & those who are dedicated to it," she added. "I look forward to telling my gymnastics story, my vision for the future of the sport and why I wanted the job." Bono, a Republican, served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1998 to 2013 in California's 44th and 45th districts. She replaced her late husband, singer and entertainer Sonny Bono, after he died in a skiing accident. Kaepernick, the former NFL quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, riled Republicans -- including President Donald Trump -- over the past two years for taking a knee during the national anthem before games as a protest against the treatment of minorities by police. Nike chose Kaepernick as the new face of an advertising campaign prior to the start of this year's NFL season. Biles signed with Nike in November 2015. She is one of several prominent team members sponsored by Nike, including fellow 2016 Olympic gold medalist Laurie Hernandez, who announced she will be returning to competition last week. Bono's blunder, an apology 24 hours into her tenure, is just the latest in a cavalcade of errors by USA Gymnastics, the Olympic sport's governing body. Bono was installed, at least temporarily, as a replacement for Kerry Perry, who was forced out in September after just nine months in charge. Perry's tenure was marked by a series of missteps over the handling of the Larry Nassar case and criticism from victims abused by the former physician over Perry's lack of transparency about how the organization planned to protect athletes going forward. The resignation came just days after she hired Mary Lee Tracy as USA Gymnastics' women's elite development coordinator. Tracy is a longtime gymnastics coach who had voiced support for Nassar after he was arrested in 2016 on sex-abuse charges, which brought immediate condemnation from star gymnast Aly Raisman. USA Gymnastics' entire board was forced out by the U.S. Olympic Committee earlier this year in the wake of Nassar's conviction for sexual assault. Bono told The Associated Press in an interview in November 2017 that she was the subject of repeated sexual harassment by an unnamed House colleague while serving as a congresswoman. The search for a permanent replacement for Perry is ongoing.