"Simone Biles Subtly Responds to Critics with GOAT Necklace Following All-Around Gold Victory"

The G.O.A.T. isn’t going to let a few haters get to her! Simone Biles seemingly clapped back at critics with a new sparkly goat necklace after she won another gold medal in the individual all-around at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

The artistic gymnast, 27, sported the iconic bling around her neck along with the medal as she spoke to reporters after she and teammate Suni Lee competed in the all-around final on Thursday, August 1. Simone finished first with a score of 59.131, beating silver medalist Rebeca Andrade of Brazil by 1.199 points. Suni, 21, won bronze in the competition with a score of 56.465.

Simone revealed that teammate Jordan Chiles handed her the new goat pendant after the win.

“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 explained. “And the haters hate it so I love that even more. 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.””

However, Simone added that it was still “crazy” to know that people consider her one of the greatest athletes of all time “because I still think I’m Simone Biles from Spring, Texas, that loves to flip.”

Simone and Suni’s win comes after they won gold in the team all-around final along with Jordan, 23, and teammates Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera on Tuesday, July 30. Simone and Jordan participated in all four events —vault, beam, bars and floor routine — while Suni competed in the latter three. Jade, 24, competed in the vault exercise. Hezly, 16, was not chosen to participate in the team final, but she still received a gold medal with her teammates.

Simone celebrated the team’s win by seemingly throwing shade at former teammate MyKayla Skinner, who made negative comments about this year’s women’s gymnastics team in June.

“Lack of talent, lazy, Olympic champions,” Simone wrote on Instagram alongside photos of the team celebrating their win on the mat.

Many people in the comments applauded Simone for appearing to call out MyKayla, 27.

“It doesn’t get more iconic than this.. She f’d around n found out fr. Feels like I need to apologize just to redeem my first name,” former Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney wrote.

Simone’s husband, Jonathan Owens, added, “F AROUND AND FIND OUT.”

“And that’s on periodt!!” Jordan said, while Suni wrote in a since-deleted comment, “Put a finger down if Simone Biles just ended you.”

Jordan revealed on Wednesday, July 31, that MyKayla had blocked Simone on Instagram.

MyKayla said in a YouTube video during the Olympic trials that this year’s team did not seem to have the “talent and depth” that it used to have “besides Simone.”

“I mean, obviously, a lot of girls don’t work as hard. The girls just don’t have the work ethic,” she continued. “A lot of girls don’t work as hard. It’s hard, too, because of SafeSport. Coaches can’t get on athletes which in some ways is really good but at the same time, to get to where you need to be in gymnastics you do have to be … a little aggressive, a little intense.”

MyKayla faced backlash for her comments and later issued an apology, saying that she was “misunderstood.”

“A lot of the stuff I was talking about wasn’t always necessarily about the current team because I love and support all the girls that made it and I’m so proud of them,” she said on Instagram. “It was more about going back into my own gym and the work ethic is different compared to when we were doing gymnastics in the Marta [Karolyi] era.”