Olympic champion gymnast Simone Biles shared a cryptic comment in response to news that U.S. women's gymnastics high-performance director Tom Forster was resigning.
An email to athletes, staff, coaches and judges, co-signed by him and Vice President of Women's Gymnastics Annie Heffernon and obtained by E! News, stated that "Tom Forster has made the decision to step down" from his position.
"Wait until y'all realize the real problem with USAG isn't Tom," Biles tweeted on Thursday, Dec. 9.
USA Gymnastics has not responded to the athlete's tweet. The group's email stated that Forster's last day will be Dec. 31 and that he "will attend the January National Team Camp as our guest."
It also quoted him as saying, "My passion for this sport has always been working with coaches and athletes to bring out the best in each. I am so proud of what the Women's Program has accomplished in the last three years and it has been an incredible honor to lead Team USA. Thank you to everyone who supported me during my time in this role."
Forster, a longtime coach, was named the program's high-performance director in June 2018, five months after disgraced longtime USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison for abusing female gymnasts in his care, including Biles, who publicly spoke out about her trauma.
After he was appointed as the high-performance director of the women's gymnastics team, Forster was praised for creating a more positive environment for elite gymnasts, one where they were not pushed to perform while injured and also encouraged to voice their opinions, USA Today reported.
"Tom has been awesome; he's been so supportive," gymnast MyKayla Skinner, who won a silver medal at the 2020 Olympics after qualifying to compete for the vault final following Biles' withdrawal, told The New York Times in 2018. "It's so weird having a relationship with an Olympic coach and being able to talk to him."
Forster helped the U.S. women's gymnastics team win gold at the 2018 and 2019 world championships and silver at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where they lost to Russia. There, Biles, the greatest gymnast of all time, also won a bronze medal for her balance beam routine after withdrawing from five previous competitions, citing mental health concerns and a case of the "twisties," or mid-air disorientation. At the Olympics, Forster was criticized for being too reliant on Biles, USA Today reported.
"We're so, so fortunate that our athletes are so strong that I don't think it's going to come down to tenths of a point in Tokyo," he told the press after the Olympic trials this summer.
In the group's email, it states that "USA Gymnastics thanks him for all of his work the last three-plus years and wishes him the best. A national search will be conducted for his replacement as we begin our ramp into the 2024 Olympic Games. We expect to post the job description and open the search shortly."