Simone Biles found gymnastics on a day-care outing and rewrote the sport
At six, Simone Biles tried gymnastics during a day-care field trip, and the instructors told her to keep going. She now owns 11 Olympic and 30 world championship medals, more than any gymnast in history, and she invented the hardest skills in three women's events, moves nobody else has even attempted.
Biles was born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1997, the third of four children, and spent early years moving in and out of foster care because her birth mother could not look after the family. In 2000 her maternal grandfather Ron Biles and his wife Nellie took the children in at their home near Houston, and in 2003 they formally adopted Simone and her younger sister. Through Nellie she also holds Belizean citizenship and calls Belize a second home.
After that field trip she enrolled at a local gym and began working with coach Aimee Boorman at eight. In 2012 she switched to home schooling so she could raise her training from roughly 20 to 32 hours a week. Her career nearly stalled in July 2013, when she fell repeatedly at the U.S. Classic. She then saw a sports psychologist, whom she credits with easing her anxiety and building the confidence behind what followed. Weeks later she was national champion, and that October in Antwerp, aged 16, she became the first African American world all-around champion.
The titles kept coming: six world all-around crowns, a record five world team golds and Olympic all-around gold at Rio in 2016. At the Tokyo Games she was expected to win several golds but withdrew from most events after qualifying because of the twisties, a temporary loss of the body's sense of position in the air during twisting skills.
She came back. At Paris in 2024 she again won all-around and vault gold and led the American team to victory, and that year she became the oldest woman to win a U.S. all-around title. She has been named Laureus Sportswoman of the Year four times and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2022.
Source: Simone Biles
