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About Simone Biles
Famous American artistic gymnast Simone Biles was born on March 14, 1997. She is regarded as one of the greatest gymnasts of all time and has won the most medals in gymnastics history, totaling 37 Olympic and World Championship titles.
Her seven Olympic gymnastics medals tie Shannon Miller for the most by a U.S. gymnast and rank her eighth all-time. In addition to winning gold medals for the United States in the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019, and 2023, Biles is a six-time World all-around champion, six-time World floor exercise champion, four-time World balance beam champion, two-time World vault champion (2018–2019), and eight-time national all-around champion for the United States.
She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Joe Biden in 2022. She broke Alfred Jochim’s 90-year record for the most U.S. gymnastics titles in 2023 by winning her ninth title. Biles became the winner of the Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year award three times (in 2017, 2019, and 2020) and the Comeback of the Year award once (2024).
Quick Facts:
- Birth Name: Simone Arianne Biles
- Birth Date: March 14, 1997
- Birth Place: Columbus, Ohio,
- Gender: Female
- Career: Gymnast
- Most Known For: Simone Biles, regarded as one of the best gymnasts of all time, holds the record for most medals won throughout history and has blazed a trail of unmatched creativity and brilliance. Biles is renowned for her mastery of incredibly challenging feats. Her floor exercise routine from 2019 and her vault routine from 2023 are the hardest routines in women’s artistic gymnastics history. She is the only gymnast competing in the 2022–202 who has four abilities rated at H or above as of 2023.
Early Life:
The third of four siblings, Biles was born in Columbus, Ohio, on March 14, 1997. Shanon Biles, Simone’s biological mother, was unable to provide for Simone and her other children. Each of the four entered and left foster care.
After learning that his grandkids were in foster care in 2000, Ron Biles, the maternal grandfather of Shanon Biles, and his second wife, Nellie Cayetano Biles, started providing temporary care for Shanon’s children in the north Houston suburb of Spring, Texas. Simone and her younger sister Adria were formally adopted by the couple in 2003. The two oldest kids were adopted by Shanon’s aunt Harriet, who is Ron’s sister.She views Belize as her second home and is a citizen of Belize through her adoptive mother. Biles is a Catholic, as is her family.
Biles attended Harris County, Texas’ Benfer Elementary School. Biles was able to boost her training from roughly 20 to 32 hours per week when she transitioned from public school to homeschooling in 2012. She planned to graduate from high school in the middle of 2015. On August 4, 2014, Biles gave UCLA her verbal commitment, and in November 2014, she signed a National Letter of Intent intending to delay her enrollment until after the Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics in 2016. Rather, she declared on July 29, 2015, that she would become a professional and give up her NCAA eligibility to play for UCLA.
Career:
Junior elite (2007-2012):
Standing four feet eight inches tall, Biles started her competitive career in 2007 as a level 8 gymnast and solidified her position at the junior elite level by 2011. She won the American Classic’s vault and balancing beam competitions that year, and she placed third overall. In 2012, she put on an outstanding display, taking home the vault and all-around titles at the Secret U.S. Classic, the Alamo Classic, the Houston National Invitational, and the American Classic. Following this performance, Márta Károlyi, the National Team Coordinator (2001–2016), led a committee that selected Biles for the U.S. Junior National Team.
Senior gymnast (2013-2016):
After winning the all-around title at the 2013 U.S. P&G Championships, Biles quickly became a formidable force in the senior elite division. She made history at the World Championships at the age of sixteen, becoming the first Black woman and seventh American woman to win gold in the all-around. She placed second on the vault in the event finals, behind the reigning world champion and Olympic silver medallist McKayla Maroney and ahead of North Korea’s 2008 Olympic gold medallist Hong Un Jong; third on the balance beam, behind Ross and Mustafina; and first on the floor exercise, ahead of Romania’s Larisa Iordache and Italy’s Vanessa Ferrari. In the uneven bars final, she came in fourth place, behind Mustafina, Ross, and Huang Huidan from China.
Building on her 2014 triumphs, despite a fall during her final routine on the balancing beam, Biles won the national all-around title at the 2014 USA Gymnastics National Championships twice in two days of competition. She finished more than four points ahead of Ross, the silver medalist. She placed fourth on the uneven bars, tied for second place on the balance beam with Alyssa Baumann, and took home the gold in the vault and floor competitions.
In 2015, Biles achieved a record-tying ten gold medals at the international competition, becoming the first woman to win the world all-around title three times in a row. Seen as one of the nation’s leading Olympic aspirants, she subsequently went back to training at her family’s World Champions Centre in Spring, Texas, in preparation for Rio 2016.
With an outstanding performance that won her first place in the floor exercise and vault as well as the all-around crown in July 2016, Biles stunned gymnastics fans. Along with fellow gymnasts Laurie Hernandez, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas, and Madison Kocian, she qualified for the 2016 Olympic team.
2016 Olympic Games
Biles guided the American women’s gymnastics team to the gold on August 9, 2016. She received great scores of 15.933 on the vault, 15.3 on the balancing beam, and 15.8 for a floor routine that delighted the audience with her signature technique, “the Biles,” which consists of a double layout with a half twist. The formidable gymnast shared the title with “The Final Five,” which included Raisman, Douglas, Hernandez, and Kocian.
The Today Show host Raisman said that it was the last Olympics where there’s a five-girl team and the next Olympics is only going to be a four-person team. After winning as a team in 1996 and 2012, the Final Five became the third American women’s gymnastics squad to win a gold medal.
As she went on to win the gold medal in the women’s individual all-around competition, Biles continued to rule the Olympics. Russian gymnast Aliya Mustafina took home the bronze medal, while American compatriot Aly Raisman took home the silver. The fact that Biles defeated Raisman by a margin of 2.1 points—more than any gymnast from 1980 to 2012 combined—made her triumph genuinely historic. She also made history by being the first female to win consecutive Olympic all-around titles in 20 years.
She proceeded to secure the gold medal once more in the women’s individual vault competition, with 15.966 points, but she struggled in the individual balancing beam competition. Biles battled to keep her balance during a rare stumble, and she finished with a score of 14.733, taking home the bronze. Sanne Wevers of the Netherlands won the gold medal, while teammate Laurie Hernandez took home the silver. Biles extended her Olympic streak, winning the gold with a stunning performance that featured her trademark move.
In Rio, Biles won her fourth gold medal with a score of 15.966. Biles became one of just three gymnasts to win four gold medals in one Olympic Games: Romania’s Ecaterina Szabo in 1984, the Soviet Union’s Larisa Latynina in 1956, and Czechoslovakia’s Vera Caslavska in 1968. In the floor exercise, Biles’s teammate Raisman won silver, and British athlete Amy Tinkler took home the bronze.
Continued Fame-Breaking Records at the U.S. Nationals, World Championships
Following a significant hiatus in 2017, Biles resumed her rigorous training regimen and her position at the pinnacle of her sport. She won the U.S. Gymnastics Championships in August 2018 with a massive 6.55 point margin, making history as the first female to win five national all-around titles. She had swept all four events in the tournament.
The following year, Biles surpassed her own record by becoming the first female gymnast to execute a triple-double on the floor exercise and the first gymnast to do a double-double dismount from the balancing beam, rendering her sixth U.S. nationals victory meaningless.
At the World Championships in October 2019, Biles went on to win her fifth individual all-around gold, bringing her overall medal haul to a record-tying 25.
Due to her mental health, Biles withdrew from the women’s team gymnastics final at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which was held in the summer of 2021 after being postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After Biles’ elimination, Team USA went on to win a silver medal. She did not participate in the vault, uneven bars, floor exercise, or individual all-around finals; however, she did compete in the balancing beam final and won a bronze medal.
At the GK US Classic in Indianapolis, Indiana, on May 22, 2021, Biles made history by being the first woman to execute the Yurchenko double pike maneuver successfully in competition. Usually executed by male gymnasts, the move consists of a roundoff onto the springboard, a back handspring onto the vault, and a piked double backflip as the landing. Since then, she has won the 2023 World Artistic Gymnastics Championship, the 2023 U.S. Classic, and the 2023 U.S. Gymnastics Championships. The move has been called the Biles II since it was the first time a female gymnast executed the technique at an international competition. The American women won the global championship for the seventh time in a row, giving Biles her 20th gold medal from a world championship and her 33rd medal overall from international competitions, including the Olympics. She becomes history’s most decorated female gymnast after achieving this achievement.
Personal Life:
Between August 2017 and March 2020, Biles and fellow gymnast Stacey Ervin Jr. were romantically involved.
In August 2020, she began dating American football player Jonathan Owens. On February 15, 2022, Biles made her engagement to Owens public. On April 22, 2023, they tied the knot.
