Simone Biles isn’t going to let her critics make her feel baaaa-d.
On Thursday, the Team USA gymnast made history at the 2024 Paris Olympics by winning her second all-around gold medal. The win makes Biles the third woman, after Larisa Latynina in 1956 and 1960, and Věra Čáslavská in 1964 and 1968, to win the women’s individual all-around twice. The three-time Olympian has now won a total of nine Olympic medals, with Thursday’s win being her sixth gold, which is more medals than any other American gymnast ever.
So to celebrate, Biles decided to sport a little bling with a pretty loaded message: a necklace with a bedazzled silver goat pendant.
Ya know, just to remind everyone that she is the G.O.A.T., the greatest of all time.
When a reporter asked the athlete about her necklace after the event, Biles noted that many of her fans regularly call her “the goat.”
“So I thought it would be really special if I got one made — and the haters hate it, so I love that even more,” Biles said.
Biles then explained that she also has a stuffed goat toy in her room in the Olympic village.
“Just to get a reminder that you can go out there, you can do it, you’ve done it before. So, let’s go,” she said.
In 2021, Biles received unfair criticism when she pulled out of the Tokyo Games over “mental health” concerns and because she got a case of “the twisties,” a condition in which athletes temporarily lose their sense of spatial awareness while midair. At the time, some conservatives — including now-vice presidential nominee JD Vance — attempted to spin Biles’ need for self-care into a “culture war” talking point. The “Hillbilly Elegy” author criticised those who supported or resonated with Biles’ decision by calling them “weird” for turning “a very tragic moment” into “this act of heroism.”
“And I think it reflects pretty poorly on our sort of therapeutic society that we try to praise people not for moments of strength, not for moments of heroism, but for their weakest moments,” Vance added.
Biles has also been engaged in some online drama with her former teammate MyKayla Skinner before and during the Paris Olympics. Last month, Skinner gave a unflattering review of this year’s women’s gymnastics team by criticising their “work ethic.”
“Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t what it used to be,” she said in a since-deleted YouTube video, portions of which can be found here.
Days later, Biles seemingly responded to Skinner’s negative take on this year’s Team USA.
“Not everyone needs a mic and a platform,” she wrote on Threads.