Last week, Olympic gold gymnast Simone Biles shared an Instagram photo from Rio.
The image shows Biles, along with fellow American gymnasts Madison Kocian and Aly Raisman, rocking bikinis on the beach and showing off their incredible six-pack abs.
The Internet was collectively in awe of their super-fit figures, tweeting their approval and admiration.
Not everyone was impressed, however. One twitter troll named Daniel — handle @UWantMyD_aniel — took to social media to body-shame the women, writing, “Y’all find this attractive? lmaaoo.”
The tweet has since been deleted, but not before hundreds of users rushed to the gymnasts’ defence and put Daniel on blast.
Do you think they did years of training to get to the olympics to hear your opinion Daniel? https://t.co/CPnpdpnQZV
— 力 (@StephGump) August 23, 2016
@UWantMyD_aniel These women r some of the most accomplished athletes on ?, but whether they’re attractive is the most important quality ???
— ♡LilSheepyMissy 🙂 (@MissyMutilation) August 23, 2016
@UWantMyD_aniel meanwhile you’re struggling to lift weights in the gym
— an actual mess (@kaykayeeee) August 22, 2016
Our personal favourite, however, has to be this epic tweet from university student Crystal McDuffy.
They’re the best gymnasts in the world. I promise you, they didn’t get those abs to impress your dusty ass. https://t.co/LK05pdB0U8
— Crystal. (@blackandbougie) August 23, 2016
The tweet has since gone viral, with more than 50,000 retweets.
“Be it in sports, politics, business and more, women continually seem to be evaluated based upon whether they’re attractive in a man’s eyes,” McDuffy told BuzzFeed News. “Everything women do is not for male consumption or approval.”
In light of the recent media coverage, McDuffy stands by her tweet and says she’s glad it got people talking.
“When I tweet, aside from gaining a few laughs, my ultimate goal is to get people to reflect on why they do and say the things that they do,” McDuffy said. “I think this tweet did a swell job.”
She added: “Also, I would do many, many, many, things to have abs like that.”
Wouldn’t we all!
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