Yahoo Finance Simone Biles has no patience for SportsCenter's very male GOAT illustration
Female athletes are tired of being forgotten when it comes to conversations about the greatest athletes of all time, and one of those forgotten GOATs isn't staying quiet about it.
Simone Biles, one of the most decorated gymnasts of all time (and definitely in the GOAT conversation), didn't find it at all amusing when SportsCenter tweeted an illustration with the caption "So many GOATs, who's yours?" The illustration, which was drawn by an artist who goes by @dayxsleep on Instagram, included Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Muhammad Ali, Tom Brady, Tiger Woods and numerous others, plus actual goats.
What it didn't include was a single prominent image of a female athlete.
Biles snaps back at exclusion of women
Biles noticed there were no women in the image SportsCenter tweeted and vented about it on Twitter.
There are so many women I can think of that belong in this photo yet there are none https://t.co/Tsxyl8iMtO
— Simone Biles (@Simone_Biles) February 17, 2021
Numerous others joined her, which led SportsCenter to eventually delete the tweet. One Twitter user did point out that Serena Williams was in the image, squeezed in the very back near the edge. With that placement, she's easy to miss.
Only one....unfortunately. Many more should be added. pic.twitter.com/UWt0YDHUe1
— Tony The Boxing Guru Guzman (@TonyguzFV360) February 17, 2021
Williams' addition looked like an afterthought, and it very well could have been. The artist posted the original image on his Instagram several days earlier, and Williams was nowhere to be found.
Biles sent TODAY a list of athletes she would have liked to see represented in the illustration: Katie Ledecky, Alex Morgan, Sue Bird, Simone Manuel, Allyson Felix, Lindsey Vonn, Megan Rapinoe, and Williams. Biles didn't name herself, but there's no question that she should also be included in that list.
Biles not the only one frustrated about exclusion of women
Biles' frustration at SportsCenter's endorsement of a male-dominated GOAT illustration is just the latest example of women being left out of the GOAT conversation.
When Tom Brady won his seventh Super Bowl ring in early February, people wondered if he's the GOAT for continuing to play at a high level into his 40s. That conversation notably excluded Serena Williams, who is 39 and back playing at a high level after giving birth to her daughter, Olympia — a birth that caused a life-threatening pulmonary embolism, which forced Williams to stay in bed for six weeks while she recovered. Oh, and Williams also won the 2017 Australian Open while she was eight weeks pregnant, a feat that's absolutely mind boggling.
Williams' husband, Alexis Ohanian, hasn't appreciated that his wife is consistently excluded from GOAT conversations. At the 2021 Australian Open, he wore a t-shirt that made a loud statement about Williams' place in sports history.
— §AlexisOhanian 7️⃣7️⃣6️⃣ (@alexisohanian) February 16, 2021
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