Simone Biles claps back at hair critics at the Paris 2024 Olympics
Olympic legend Simone Biles has made it clear that she doesn’t want your opinion on her hair.
The gymnast who won four medals at the Paris 2024 Olympics – three gold and a silver – clapped back against criticism of her hair at the team finals.
In an Instagram post, which featured a selfie of her clutching a handheld fan, Biles told potential critics not to “come for me about my hair”, adding that she had endured a 45-minute bus ride to the stadium during a Paris heatwave.
“It was done,” she wrote. “But [the] bus has [no air-conditioning] and it’s like 9,000 degrees. Next time you wanna comment on a Black girl’s hair, just don’t.”
Her post came after trolls across social media targeted her appearance, seemingly uninterested that, at 27, she has become the Games’ oldest women’s all-around champion since the Soviet Union’s Maria Gorokhovskaya in 1952, and now has six Olympic gold medals to her name.
Biles talked about her hair in an interview with Elle magazine before the start of the Games, saying she is “finally learning to love [it] and [its] texture”.
“Most of the backlash we get is from our own community, which is unfortunate,” she said. “I don’t really care if my edges aren’t smooth. I used to worry about [my hair being considered] not professional… but I’m not embarrassed about it any more.”
The insults weren’t enough to throw Biles off, however, with her Olympic return three years after she was forced to withdraw because of a mental block known as “the twisties“.
In the course of just a few days in Paris, Biles won medals in the women’s artistic individual all-round event, the women’s artistic team all-around, the women’s vault artistic gymnastics, and the women’s floor artistic gymnastics. She is the most-decorated gymnast of all time.
Speaking at a press conference, she said: “I’ve accomplished way more than in my wildest dreams. Not just at this Olympics, but in the sport. A couple years ago, I didn’t think I’d be back at an Olympic Games. So, competing and walking away with four medals… I’m pretty proud of myself.”
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