The 24-year-old Olympian — who is considered by many sports fa-ns to be the G.O.A.T: Greatest of All Time — has been honored an emoji of a goat wearing a leotard and a gold medal while doing a split on the social media platform. The custom emoji will show up whenever a Twitter user employs the hashtags #SimoneBiles or #Simone now through August 8.
The move makes her the first Olympian to get a custom emoji, and the first female athlete to get her own GOAT emoji on Twitter. Twitter has given athletes GOAT emojis in the past, but digital distinction had previously held by men, like NFL stars Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes.
Simone’s special emoji comes as she herself has embraced the GOAT label with bedazzled goats on her leotards.
Biles debuted her bedazzled goat at the the 2021 GK U.S. Classic gymnastics competition at the Indiana Convention Center on May 22, flaunting the blinged-out animal on the back of her leotard.
She wore another on her shoulder at the 2021 U.S. Gymnastics Championships at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas on June 04, and another on her waist at the same competition two days later. She dubbed her little mascot Goldie the Goat, and now Goldie’s gotten the emoji treatment.
‘Witness great-ness. Tweet with greatn-ess,’ wrote the official Twitter Sports account, announcing the news. F-an-s clearly approve, with admirers fl***ing Twitter to share their excitement and calling the emoji ‘awesome’ and ‘so cute’
‘Such a fi!e hashtag emoji,’ wrote one. ‘Big fan of the new #simonebiles GOAT emoji! She couldn’t be more deserving,’ added another.
While the gymnastics superstar has embraced the icon, she explained to Marie Claire that Goldie the Goat was l-ess a boast and more a way to t!oll her ‘ha**s,’ whom she knew would get riled up when they saw it.
‘The idea was to hit back at the ha!ers,’ Biles explained. ‘I didn’t feel like it was necessarily fair how they could keep saying whatever they wanted, but then if I said something, it wasn’t fair. [The ha**rs] were joking like, “I swear, if she put a goat on her leo, blah, blah, blah.” That would make them so ang-ry.
‘And then I was like, “Oh, that’s actually a good idea. Let’s make the h**ers hate it, and the fans love it.” And so that’s exactly what we did and why we did it,’ she said.
The star also str-essed the importance of people being proud of their accomplishments. ‘I just hope that kids growing up watching this don’t or aren’t ashamed of being good at whatever they do,’ she said.
‘And that’s my problem: when people kind of harp on other people that are good at something. And it’s like, everybody can say you’re good, but once you acknowledge it, it’s not cool anymore. And I want kids to learn that, yes, it’s okay to acknowledge that you’re good or even great at something.’
Speaking to People, she later added: ‘I don’t think of myself as the G.O.A.T. and that’s not why I wear the goat on my leo. It was kind of a joke in the beginning. I wore one in 2019 and it was just funny because the haters were so up-set.
‘What we did is to kind of tick them off even more. So I was happy because it’s like good, now you guys are annoyed because you’re annoying me.’
It’s as yet unknown whether the star will wear Goldie leotards at the Olympics, but she did pay tribute on her flight to Tokyo, snapping a picture with a Goldie-emblazoned blanket.
The star gave an enthusiastic wave when she stepped off the plane at Narita International Airport in Japan last week wearing a cozy tie-dye sweatshirt, black leggings, and a mask.
Biles opened up to Good Morning America about representing the US at her second Olympics, saying: ‘It means the world to me. I did it in 2016 at various times for World Championships, so to have another opportunity, it’s just amazing.’
However, things are certainly different this time around due to the COVID-19 protocols, which ban spectators in the stands — including the competitors’ families — among other rules.
‘We’ve had a lot of calls because COVID prot-ocols will be different for an Olympic Games, as we’ve seen in previous seasons of all different sports so far this year,’ she said. ‘As for the cro*d, that’ll be super wei*d because it’ll kind of be like training. We’ve never done that as well either. So it’ll be a different experience, but we’re ready for whatever they throw at us.’
Biles explained that this is the first time she is traveling and competing by herself — without her family supporting her in the stands.
‘I honestly have never done a competition without my parents there, so I’m a little bit nervous, but I know they’ll be there in spirit,’ she said. ‘My mom is like, “Please FaceTime me before.” So I’m sure she’ll be calling me as we get ready because they’ll be up already and ready to watch.’