Simone Biles

b. 1997 Tier I

A day care field trip put her in a gym at six

Portrait of Simone Biles — Ocoudis — 2024-06-02 — CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

She was the third of four children born in Columbus to a mother who could not care for them, and all four went in and out of foster care. In 2000 her grandfather Ron Biles and his wife Nellie took the children into their house in Spring, Texas, and in 2003 the couple adopted Simone and her younger sister Adria outright, while a great-aunt adopted the two older ones. At six, on a day care outing to a gym, she copied the older girls well enough that the instructors told her family to bring her back. She began training with Aimee Boorman at eight. In 2012 she left school for home study and went from about 20 hours a week in the gym to 32.

At 16 she won the world all-around title, then won it five more times. She has 30 World Championship medals, 23 of them gold, and 11 Olympic ones, more than any other American gymnast. Five elements in the international code of points carry her name, among them the hardest skills women perform on vault, beam and floor. Rio in 2016 brought four golds and a bronze. Tokyo in 2021 brought the withdrawal. Paris in 2024 brought team gold, a second Olympic all-around title eight years after the first, a second vault title, a silver on floor and a fall on beam — the first of her nine Olympic or world beam finals to end without a medal. She has won the United States all-around nine times, the last as the oldest woman ever to take it.

On January 18, 2018, she said that Larry Nassar, the USA Gymnastics team doctor, had sexually assaulted her, and that the federation had helped cover him up. She kept competing for the organization that had failed her, because the alternative was leaving the sport. In Tokyo she lost her air awareness mid-twist — gymnasts call it the twisties — balked on her vault in the team final and pulled out, explaining afterward that she had got so lost that both her safety and the team's medal were at risk. She was called a quitter, attacked in Russian state media, and accused of doping over the medical exemption for her ADHD medication, which had been public since hackers leaked her records in 2016. She came back for the beam final and took the bronze.

The argument about that withdrawal has largely ended in her favor. She told the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2021 that the entire system had failed, and in April 2024 the Justice Department agreed to pay 138.7 million dollars to settle claims over the FBI's handling of the Nassar reports. She has the Presidential Medal of Freedom, an Arthur Ashe Courage Award shared with the other survivors, a Laureus comeback prize for 2024 and a fourth Laureus sportswoman award in 2025. What she has not settled is whether there is another Olympics in it. Through the spring of 2026 she was still saying in public that Los Angeles in 2028 is neither ruled in nor ruled out.

Lifespan

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Simone Biles's life against the full span of the corpus — the fading end marks a life still in progress.

Notable works

The Biles (floor) other
A double layout with a half twist out, named at the 2013 World Championships 2013
Courage to Soar book
Her memoir, written at 19 and a number one young adult bestseller 2016
The Biles (vault) other
A half-on, forward layout with a double twist off 2018
The Biles II (floor) other
A triple-twisting double tuck, rated J, the hardest on the apparatus 2019
The Biles (beam) other
A double-twisting double tuck dismount, rated H 2019
The Biles II (vault) other
The Yurchenko double pike, valued at 6.4 and competed by no other woman 2023

Life in brief

with age at each point

2003 aged ~6 Adopted by her grandparents in Spring, Texas She and Adria had been in and out of foster care since infancy.
July 1, 2011 aged 14 Makes her elite debut at the American Classic in Houston at 14
2013 aged ~16 Wins the world all-around title at 16 She would take it five more times, the last in 2023.
July 29, 2015 aged 18 Turns professional and gives up her UCLA place
August 2016 aged 19 Wins four golds and a bronze at the Rio Olympics
January 18, 2018 aged 20 Says publicly that Larry Nassar assaulted her She also said USA Gymnastics had helped conceal him.
July 27, 2021 aged 24 Withdraws from the Olympic team final in Tokyo She had lost her air awareness. She returned for the beam final and won bronze.
September 15, 2021 aged 24 Testifies to the Senate Judiciary Committee She blamed the entire system, alongside Maroney, Nichols and Raisman.
August 2024 aged 27 Takes a second Olympic all-around title in Paris, eight years after the first No woman had ever won the all-around twice with a gap in between.