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Simone Biles is an American gymnast competing in the Team, Floor Exercise, Balance Beam, Vault, and All-Around events. Born March 14, 1997, Simone Biles was raised by Ronald and Nellie Biles and grew up with two older brothers, Ronald and Adam, and a younger sister, Adria. She has competed in World Championships and the Olympics.
Simone Biles began gymnastics in 2003, when she was six years old, after she went on a daycare field trip to Bannon's Gymnastix. While there, she reportedly began imitating other gymnasts in the gym, and when one of the coaches saw her, they sent a letter to her parents requesting she join tumbling or gymnastics. Since then, Simone Biles has a combined total of thirty-one Olympic and World Championship medals and is the most decorated American gymnast and regarded by some to be one of the greatest gymnasts of all time. She is also the sixth woman to win an individual all-around title at both the World Championships and the Olympics, and the first gymnast since Lilia Podkopayeva in 1996 to hold both titles simultaneously.
In the 2019 World competition in Stuttgart, Biles won her twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth World medals, both gold, and became the gymnast with the most World Medals at twenty-five, and the most World gold medals at nineteen. This surpassed the previous record held by Vitaly Scherbo's previous record of twenty-three World medals. She has the most World all-around titles for a female gymnast with five, and is the sixth woman to win an individual all-around title at both the World Championships and the Olympics.
Simon Biles poses with her five gold medals at the 2019 World Championships in Stuttgart.
Simone Biles is a seven-time US all-around champion (2013-2016, 2018-2019, 2021), a six-time US vault champion (2014-2016, 2018-2019, 2021), a five-time US balance beam champion (2015-2016, 2018-2019, 2021), and a five-time US floor exercise champion (2014, 2016, 2018-2019, 2021). These achievements made her the first woman to win five World all-around titles, the first woman to win three World balance beam titles, and the first woman to win five World floor exercise titles.
In the 2021 US Classic, Simone Biles debuted a Yurchenko double pike vault, which had not been completed by a female gymnast before, and helped her to another US Classic all-around title. The new vault was given a preliminary value of 6.6 and became the highest valued vault in women's gymnastics.
In 2016, Simone Biles participated in the Summer Olympics in Rio, her first Olympics appearance. She won four gold medals for team, all-around, vault, and floor events, and a bronze medal for the balance beam event. These four gold Olympic medals tied the Olympic record for a female gymnast in a single games, and the five medals tied her for the most by a United States gymnast.
Simone Biles training on the uneven bars ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
On July 25, 2021, the US women's artistic gymnastics team, comprised of Simone Biles, Jordan Chiles, Sunisa Lee, and Grace McCallum, advanced to the Tokyo Olympic team competition, qualifying in second place behind the Russian Olympic Committee. In the Tokyo Olympics, Simone Biles won a silver medal for the team event, but later withdrew from the competition. Prior to withdrawing, Biles was warming up for the Vault in the team finals, where she bailed out of an Amanar vault at 1.5 twists rather than the normal 2.5 twists. In the competition, she was again unable to perform the maneuver, achieving 1.5 twists but at a lower height and forcing a deep step out, all costing points. After this performance, she pulled out of the rest of the team competition, and later withdraw from the individual all-around competition.
Biles told reporters that the decision came as she did not feel she could trust herself; she was feeling more nervous, and felt like she was not having as much fun. She went on to clarify that she withdrew from the competition to protect her mental health and her body, as she was concerned the effect competition was having on her mental health at the time. USA Gymnastics said in a statement that it supported her decision wholeheartedly.
Simone Biles memoir Courage to Soar.
After the Rio Olympics, Simone Biles planned a hiatus from gymnastics for all of 2017, but set herself to return in 2018 in order to compete in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. During this year, she announced she was going to take time to write a biography, titled Courage to Soar, co-written with journalist Michelle Burford and intended to chronicle Biles' path to success.
