Simone Biles: More than an Athlete

Simone Biles with her Olympic medals. Photo: Front Office Sports

Simone Biles is arguably one of the best gymnasts in the world right now. With 11 Olympic medals and 30 World Championship medals, the 28 year old is the most decorated gymnast in history.

Born in Ohio, Biles began gymnastics at the age of six on a class trip where one of the coaches suggested she enrolled in classes due to her talent.

Eight years later her elite career began where she competed at the 2011 American Classic in Houston. Biles placed 3rd overall and 1st on both vault and beam.

Two years later, aged 16, Biles made her senior international debut as an injury replacement and finished second place overall. Just months later, she travelled with the national team to Belgium to compete in the 2013 World Championships.

Qualifying first overall as well as on floor, she became the first African American to win the all around title, cementing her name on the world stage.

Medal Record:

Having competed in three Olympic Games, Biles has amassed seven gold medals, two silver medals and two bronze medals.

In 2016, her first Olympics, she won gold in the team competition alongside her teammates Gabby Douglas, Laurie Hernandez, Madison Kocian and Aly Raisman as well as gold in the all-around, on floor and on vault and bronze on the balance beam. These four medals set an American record for the most medals received in women’s gymnastics at a single games.

2020 had a different outcome due to her experiencing “the twisties” (a psychological phenomenon which causes gymnasts to lose air awareness when performing twisting elements,) and thus withdrawing from the competition. Despite this, Biles helped the team win silver and earned a bronze medal on beam.

In 2024, Biles became the fourth ever female artistic gymnast to compete at three consecutive Olympic Games. Here she placed first in the team competition, in the all-around and on vault whilst she placed second on floor.

In the beam rotation, Biles was handed a three-tenths of a point deduction for not properly saluting to judges after concluding her routine, leading to her placing fifth, missing out on a medal for the first time in her nine Olympic or world championship beam finals.

Biles is the most decorated artistic gymnast to have competed at the world championships with an all-time record of 30 medals 23 of which are gold. Six of these medals are individual all-around golds, whilst another six of floor golds, four of these are beam golds, two are vault golds and she has also been a member of five gold medal winning US teams.

Larry Nassar Assault

In early 2018, Biles spoke out against former USA gymnastics physician Larry Nassar saying that he had sexually assaulted her and that USA gymnastics had helped to cover it up.

While she did not attend his sentencing hearings in 2018, in September 2021 Biles testified to the US Senate judiciary committee where she blamed “the entire system” for enabling Nassar’s crimes.

During the 2018 US national Championships, she wore a teal leotard that she designed to honour the survivors of Nassar’s abuse as a statement of unity. Since 2018 two documentaries have been released speaking about the scandal including “Athlete A” which debuted on Netflix in 2020.

Skills

As well as perfecting many other gymnast named skills, Biles also has five skills of her own. Moves can be named after gymnasts when they are the first to compete them in an international competition, like the Olympics.

In Simone Biles’ case, she has two elements on vault, the ‘Biles’ (yurchenko ½ entry on - forward layout double twist off) and the ‘Biles II’ (a yurchenko entry on - double backwards pike off), one skill on the balance beam, the ‘Biles’ (a backward double-twisting double-tuck dismount) and a further two skills on the floor, including the ‘Biles’ (a backward double layout Salto 1/2 twist out) and the ‘Biles II’ (a backward triple twisting double tuck).

Each skill is ranked differently with the more recent vault skill 0.4 points higher than her original, and as of 2024 she is the sole gymnast to have competed four skills valued at H or higher in the 2022 to 2024 creative points on floor.

Gold over America

In 2019 Biles announced her plans to launch an all female tour involved in a mixture of sports to inspire the next generation of female athletes with the aim for it to begin after the 2020 summer Olympic Games.

This was of course postponed until 2021 where 34 shows were played across 32 cities from September to November. Whilst only gymnasts were involved, the selection included Canada‘s Ellie Black and France’s Melanie de Jesus dos Santos.

In 2024, the Gold Over America Tour had a second spell after the conclusion of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

Gymnasts like Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles, Hezly Rivera and Katelyn Ohashi joined Biles on the tour which this time included the men’s national team with gymnasts like Shane Wiskus and Fred Richard also taking part.

32 shows took place across 32 different cities with the show beginning in mid September 2024 and concluding at the beginning of November 2024.

Despite teasing retirement, Byles has made it clear that her gymnastic days are not over yet, with the desire to add more gold medals to her collection. In a post Olympic Games interview she said “never say never” at the prospect of competing in LA 2028.