Simone Biles Has a Powerful Message for All the G.O.A.T Haters

Twenty seven-year old Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles has racked up an immense amount of praise and celebration for her historic accomplishments throughout her gymnastics career and most recently at the 2024 Paris Olympics (rightly so!). But Biles has also been hit with a wash of criticism, with haters denouncing her G.O.A.T. ('Greatest of All Time') nickname and diminishing the athlete's achievements.

The nine-time Olympic medalist purchased literal goat merch to remind her to stay strong, specifically a silver necklace with a silver goat pendant. She also revealed in an interview with CNN that she has a goat stuffed animal.

She discussed the goat emblem and was quoted saying, "It's a little ode, I mean a lot of people love it, they always call me the G.O.A.T so I thought it would be really special if I got one made,” she said. “And the haters hate it so I love that even more and it's just a special part of me that I have here, as well as in the village I have like a stuffed goat, just to get a reminder: 'You can go out there, you can do it, you've done it before, so let's go.'’”

Biles also sprang to the defense of her U.S. teammates when former U.S. gymnastics teammate MyKayla Skinner said in a since-deleted YouTube video: “Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t like what it used to be...Just notice like, I mean, obviously a lot of girls don’t work as hard. The girls just don’t have the work ethic.”

In response to Skinner's comments, Biles posted a photo of her and her teammates holding up an American flag after they won the Olympic gold medal, captioning it, "lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions ❤️🥇🇺🇸"

We love a comeback queen! Crowns off to Biles folks.