Tokyo Olympics: Why is Simone Biles called the GOAT? USA Gymnastics star has special leotard and own Twitter emoji

ByDan Gibbs

Published 27/07/2021 at 09:22 GMT

Simone Biles has her own Twitter emoji, a goat on her leotard, and a lot of medals to her name. She's also pretty good at gymnastics. Here's all you need to know about the US star looking to light up Tokyo 2020. Stream every unmissable moment of Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 live on discovery+, The Streaming Home of the Olympics.

Simone Biles is one of the biggest names to feature at Tokyo 2020 with the gymnastics star looking to establish herself as the GOAT.

However, the 24-year-old was far from perfect as the USA finished second behind the Russian Olympic Committee in the women's gymnastics team qualifying on Sunday.

The American was penalised on both floor and vault as her team finished on 170.526, behind the leaders' mark of 171.629.

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Biles has still reached all five individual finals though as she looks to add to her incredible medal haul.

• Simone Biles fails to qualify for uneven bars at Tokyo 2020
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How many medals has Simone Biles won?

At Rio 2016, she won four Olympic gold medals from the team, all-around, vault and floor events.

She also secured bronze at the 2016 games on the balance beam.

Alongside her Olympics success, Biles is the most-decorated gymnast in World Championships history with 25 medals in total from all competitions, 19 of which are gold.

And how tall is Simone Biles? She stands at just 4ft 8in.

Simone Biles boasts four Olympic gold medals to her name already

Image credit: Getty Images

Why is Simone Biles called the GOAT?

GOAT is an abbreviation of the phrase 'Greatest Of All Time' and for many that's exactly what Biles is when it comes to gymnastics.

If her medals mentioned above aren't an indication of her status in the gymnastics world, then how about having moves named after you?

Biles has four separate gymnastics moves named after her, an honour granted to those first to complete a manoeuvre in competition.

She could even have a fifth named after her if she decides to pull off the Yurchenko double pike (Natalia Yurchenko, the former Soviet gymnast never attempted it in competition) on the vault.

The goat image sometimes seen on Simone Biles' leotard

Image credit: Getty Images

Keep an eye out for Biles' leotard too. In competitions she can sometimes be seen with the small image of a goat on her shoulder or the side of her midriff.

"I just hope that kids growing up watching this don't or aren't ashamed of being good at whatever they do,” Biles said of the goat leotard in a recent interview with Marie Claire.

“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."

To recognise her status, even Twitter announced she'd been given her own goat emoji ahead of the Olympics starting, making her the first Olympic athlete to receive one.

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