Simone Biles says she wears rhinestone 'GOAT' leotards to 'hit back at the haters'

• Olympic gymnast Simone Biles wears leotards bedazzled with rhinestone goats.
• The goats symbolize her status as the "greatest of all time."
• Biles told Marie Claire that she wears "GOAT" leotards to "hit back at the haters."

As the most decorated gymnast in history, Olympian Simone Biles is widely regarded as the greatest of all time in her sport, landing tricks that no other gymnast has attempted in competition and winning medal after medal.

In acknowledgement of her "GOAT" status, Biles began bedazzling her leotards with a rhinestone goat named Goldie. She told Marie Claire's Megan DiTrolio that the goat design is a message to those who criticize her for owning her skill.

"The idea was to hit back at the haters," she said. "I didn't feel like it was necessarily fair how they could keep saying whatever they wanted, but then if I said something, it wasn't fair. [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. Let's make the haters hate it, and the fans love it.' And so that's exactly what we did and why we did it," Biles said.

Biles said she hopes that the way she celebrates her talent can help give others the confidence to embrace their own.

"I just hope that kids growing up watching this don't or aren't ashamed of being good at whatever they do," she said. "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."

Biles sported a bedazzled goat during the US Classic in May, which Insider previously reported marked her first competition in 587 days.

The star gymnast is set to represent the US at the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo this summer. The games are set for more than three years after Biles joined scores of other women accusing former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar of sexual abuse. She told NBC's "Today" show in April that her return would honor survivors of abuse within American gymnastics.

"I feel like gymnastics wasn't the only thing I was supposed to come back for," Biles told Today's Hoda Kotb. "Because I feel like if there weren't a remaining survivor in the sport, they would've just brushed it to the side."