In a 2020 interview, Skinner stated that his mental health declined after the 2016 Olympics, culminating in what he described as a "mental breakdown" during the 2018 Commonwealth Games after he was disqualified from the keirin, although he did go on to take a medal in the kilometer time trial. He said that in 2019 he disclosed his mental health issues to a senior person at British Cycling, but that the official in question refused his request for time off to recover: he reflected that "that conversation finished me as a cyclist".