It's no secret that Simone Biles is one of the greatest athletes on the planet. However, with that type of success, Biles does have a fair amount of criticism of social media.
In the latest episode of Simone vs. Herself, which is a Facebook Watch docuseries that focuses on her training for the Tokyo Olympics, she explained why she has wore leotards with rhinestone goat heads in the past.
"We wore the GOAT [leotard] just to kind of I wouldn't say to piss people off but mess with them because there were a lot of people that say, 'Hey, Simone, you're the GOAT.' But then if I acknowledge it, then I'm cocky," Biles said.
"Everybody can call you the GOAT, but then if you acknowledge it once, they're like, 'Oh my god, I hate her! She's not that awesome!' I don't think it's fair that you can stand behind the computer and talk all that smack, and I just take it as an athlete. So it was kind of just to push back, and then it just pissed them off, so in the end, we won. People loved it, they hated it, I loved it."
In the latest episode, Biles revealed that he does tend to worry about the criticism that she may face if she fails to land difficult moves. Biles did recently land a Yurchenko double pike at the U.S. Classic and was the first woman ever to do so.
Biles continues to silence her doubters, but does admit that she sees what her critics have to say.
"Lately, I haven't been as active on social media, and I feel like I'm kind of getting to the point where I don't share as much. But I've always been so open and honest with my fans, and I feel like it's kind of punishing my fans for the haters, you know?
"But at the end of the day, it's like, people are just so rude. They tweet me that they hope I fall on bars. They hope I mess up the entire meet. I'm not as good [as] I was in 2016.
"They were just saying the most outrageous things. They don't care. They probably think you're not gonna see it or you don't care or they don't think we're human like them."
Biles will look to make even more history at the Tokyo Olympics, which begin on July 23. When she competes in Tokyo, it'll be interesting to see if she ends up breaking out another GOAT leotard.
