Picture Credit: Twitter
Simone Biles, one of the most decorated gymnasts the sport has ever seen, has become the first female athlete and first Olympian ever to get her own custom hashtag Twitter emoji. The star American would look to recreate history at the greatest sporting extravaganza at the Tokyo Olympic games by going for all four individual gold medals as well as the team gold. The 24-year-old has already admitted that she happens to be in the best shape of her life.
Notably, Biles, who is regarded by many as the Greatest of All Time (GOAT) gymnast, received the honour before the start of the games with the social media giants announcing the same. While they had already done the same for other athletes before, the likes of Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes to name a few, what makes this special was this being the first time for a female athlete and first for an Olympic athlete.
Second most talked about athlete after Japanese swimmer Rikako Ikee
The custom hashtag for Biles is nothing but an adorable goat. The goat could be seen wearing a leotard and doing a split leap, much like the real Biles doing it on the balance beam. It should also be noted that as per Twitter, Biles ranks second in terms of most talked about athletes during the Olympic games, only after Japanese swimmer Rikako Ikee.
"The idea was to hit back at the haters," Biles told Marie Claire magazine in an interview.
"[The haters] were joking, like, 'I swear, if she put a goat on her Leo, blah, blah, blah.' That would make them so angry. And then I was like, 'Oh, that's actually a good idea,'" she added.
Custom hashtag emojis for countries
Over the years, microblogging site Twitter has come up with many a custom hashtags and emojis for athletes as well as countries and tournaments. As many as four countries have custom hashtag emojis to their name - USA, UK, Canada and India. In fact, prior to every major sporting event, the social media site comes up with custom hashtag emojis.