Simone Biles' success at the 2016 Olympic games catapulted her to a level of celebrity
that transcended sports, turning her into a pop culture icon. It's undeniable that the
much-decorated American artistic gymnast is a literal superstar. This is the untold truth
of Simone Biles.
There have been some memorable gymnasts to have captured Olympic gold, but Simone Biles
holds the record for the most gymnastics titles ever captured by a single athlete in the history
of the sport. In June 2021, Biles won her seventh national all-around title, making
her the first American woman to ever hold that distinction. She also holds a record-setting
25 world championship medals, of which 19 are gold. Then, of course, there are the one
bronze and four gold medals that she won at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. According
to an interview with Sports Illustrated, Biles appeared to be less focused on her four gold
medal wins than on the botched landing that cost her a fifth gold medal and instead earned
her a bronze. She admitted,
"I was so happy that I even medaled because of the mistake that I had. But I felt so ashamed
because [...] I ruined their [headline] of five gold medals."
A daycare field trip when she was just 6 years old changed Simone Biles' life forever. As
the World Champions Centre website recounted, the trip took the youngster to Bannon's Gymnastix,
where she began to mimic the movements of the gymnasts she watched. One of the coaches
noticed her ability to copy the moves with amazing accuracy, and told another coach.
The two sent a letter home with Biles for her parents, advising them that she had natural
ability and would benefit from taking some gymnastics classes. Her parents decided to
enroll her. Biles may have been the most inexperienced child in her gymnastics class, but her natural
ability shone through. It wasn't long before she had surpassed the other kids, and she
spent the next decade-plus training relentlessly.
Back in 1972, Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut debuted a backward flip that came to be her signature
move, the Korbut Flip. Simone Biles can top that, with two signature moves named after
her. According to NPR, in order for a move to be named after a gymnast, the athlete must
submit the proposed move for consideration, and then successfully demonstrate it in a
competition. First, the gymnast pioneered the Biles, per CBS Sports,
"She landed the double-double dismount from the balance beam, a move that includes a double-twisting
double backflip. Not an easy feat to say the least."
Then came another move, which came to be known as the Biles II. Per CBS Sports,
"The 22-year-old perfectly executed a triple-double, which consists of a double backflip with three
twists."
In preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, taking place in 2021, Biles focused on perfecting
her amped-up version of the Yurchenko Double Pike, named for Russian gymnast Natalia Yurchenko.
Biles' version adds an additional flip, and she expressed hope it would become the third
move to be named after her.
Simone Biles has proven to be a stone-cold competitor who doesn't shrink from competition.
She's also shown herself to be fearless when tackling never-before-performed gymnastics
moves that boast a high degree of difficulty. There is, however, one thing that strikes
fear into the heart of the celebrated athlete, and that's bees.
That was apparent after the 2014 World Championships, immediately after Biles' routine had won the
gold medal. As she held a bouquet she'd just been presented, a bee suddenly buzzed out
of the flowers she was grasping. Biles lost her cool and flipped out, scurrying away from
the podium as the bee buzzed after her. Biles subsequently spoke with Today about the bee,
and admitted she probably could have handled it better. The then-17-year-old said,
"It was in the flowers [...] I tried not to freak out, but I just freaked out."
Simone Biles knows how to treat herself when the time is appropriate. The gymnast revealed
that she allows herself to indulge in a favorite food after each competition, and that it's
the same dish every single time. Speaking with ABC News, Biles revealed,
"It doesn't even matter if I don't win a self-gold, after every meet I have pizza. Pepperoni pizza."
However, in order to maintain her status as one of the world's top athletes, Biles eats
accordingly. As a result, pizza remains more of a special-occasion treat than an everyday
staple. Speaking with Women's Health, Biles shared that when she cooks for herself,
"It's usually pasta, or chicken or salmon in the air fryer, oven, or on the grill."
According to Biles, she tends to eat intuitively, telling Women's Health,
"I eat what I feel good with and try not to overeat or stuff myself because I'm always
at the gym."
In 2018, Simone Biles was in Doha, Qatar to compete in the world gymnastics championships
when, the night before her competition, she began to feel unwell. As ESPN reported,
"The sensation she chalked up to usual pre-meet stress had evolved into searing agony that
at times left her crawling on the floor."
A CT scan diagnosed a kidney stone, which Biles hilariously nicknamed "The Doha Pearl."
Biles was actually thankful that it was just a kidney stone and not appendicitis, as she
feared, which would have forced her to drop out of the competition. Biles tweeted, along
with some photos of herself in a hospital bed,
"Nothing like a late night ER visit less than 24 hrs before world championships. This kidney
stone can wait [...] doing it for my team!"
Despite the excruciating pain, Biles insisted on avoiding the medication she was prescribed
because of the risk that she could be disqualified after taking a mandatory drug test. Despite
her affliction, The Guardian reported,
"Biles posted the highest individual scores on the beam, vault and floor, and was second
on uneven bars through five of 11 qualifying groups."
Simone Biles isn't the only gymnast in the family. Her sister, Adria, is also a competitive
gymnast, and has trained alongside her sister since the very beginning. In an essay she
wrote for ESPN, Adria explained,
"My sister has always been fearless. [...] It's been funny to watch her go from normal Simone
to famous Simone."
The sisters also look alike. When they were in Brazil for the Rio Olympics, Adria wrote,
"Even in Brazil, people came up to me every day thinking I was her. They'd ask for autographs
and take pictures. And many times they didn't speak English so I couldn't explain that I
wasn't her. They'd just say, 'Simone! Simone!' and finally I decided it was easier to just
let them take a picture."
Conceding that she does look a lot like Simone, Adria explained that the easiest way to tell
the sisters apart is by height. Simone stands at four-foot-eight and Adria towers over her
at five-foot-two.
In 2016, BBC News reported that Russian hackers managed to breach the database of the World
Anti-Doping Agency, and among the athletes' medical records to be exposed were those of
Simone Biles. The big revelation to emerge from the hack was that the celebrated gymnast
had been diagnosed with ADHD as a child, and was still taking medication to treat the condition.
While that act of cyber-espionage may have been intended to embarrass Biles, it actually
propelled her into becoming an advocate for those who have ADHD.
In 2017, Biles cemented this unanticipated advocacy role when she participated in a video
in which she speaks with two young girls, both of whom are aspiring gymnasts, and both
of whom have ADHD. In her conversation with the girls, Biles offered some advice that
shed light on how she views her own diagnosis.
"Just have fun in whatever you do, and don't think of anything as a downfall. Think of
it as a superpower."
In the spring of 2020, "Spider-Man" star Tom Holland took to social media to issue a handstand
challenge. The goal, as he demonstrated in a video that he posted, was to do a handstand,
supporting oneself against a wall, and put on a t-shirt while balancing in a handstand.
After the challenge was attempted by various celebrities, Simone Biles shared her own attempt.
Naturally, the Olympic gold medalist put her own unique spin on it.
In a video that she shared on Twitter, Biles performed a handstand, but unlike Holland,
she was not supporting herself against a wall. Neither did she put on a t-shirt. Instead,
Biles demonstrated how to remove a pair of sweatpants while remaining in a handstand.
Among the celebs who responded to Biles' extraordinary feat of near-superhuman strength was Ryan
Reynolds, who simply tweeted "No." Also chiming in was Chrissy Teigen, who tweeted,
"Simone I have to lay down and have someone else do it normally."
Simone Biles and boyfriend Jonathan Owens did not have a traditional courtship. In fact,
the gymnast and the Houston Texans defensive back met on social media just as the COVID-19
pandemic sent the entire world into lockdown. As Owens told Texas Monthly, he was impressed
by her four million-plus Instagram following but had no idea why she was so popular. Owens
admitted,
"I didn't know who she was [...] I just hadn't heard of her, and when I told her that, that's
one of the things she liked."
As the two got to know each other better, they totally clicked. Owens continued,
"This was a match made in heaven. [...] There's no better person for me. She loves me, she's
so affectionate. I just love that. And it's just intoxicating seeing how much work she
puts into everything."
The fact that both Biles and Owens are athletes, with all the pressure that entails, also served
to help them forge a tight bond. Owens explained,
"When I see her getting up and going to practice every morning, it motivates me even more."
Prior to preparing for the Olympics in Tokyo, Simone Biles hadn't competed since October
2019. Looking for something extra special for her routine, she revealed on her Facebook
Watch series "Simone vs Herself," she turned to dancer Sasha Farber to choreograph her
routine. Barber, as viewers of "Dancing With the Stars" will recall, was Biles' dance partner
when she competed in the show in 2017, and the two remained close. Biles revealed,
"Usually, I have a different choreographer, but this year I felt like we needed to be
a little bit different, spice it up."
Becoming one of the world's top gymnasts doesn't come without years of punishing training,
forcing the body to do things it arguably shouldn't be doing. By 2019, when Simone Biles
was just 22, that training had also left her in constant pain. She told the Daily Mail,
"It starts when I wake up [...] I joke to my friends a lot that I am going to be in
a wheelchair at 30."
Despite her youth, Biles revealed,
"My body feels like it is maybe in its 30s or 40s. Maybe older. Inside it is screaming
and yelling at me."
Constant pain, she revealed, had become something she'd not only grown used to, but in a weird
way had come to welcome.
"Pain is just something I live with and that is pretty odd for my age, right? It feels
weird if I'm not in pain."
In fact, Biles had grown so used to being in pain that she'd suffered serious injuries
without even realizing it. As she recalled,
"It turned out my toe was shattered in five pieces after the last Olympics without me
knowing."
"Then of course, as I get older, the worries start to set in, like, I'm in the air, if
something goes wrong, I'm really going to hurt myself."
There's a school of thought that believes it's unseemly to brag about one's accomplishments.
However, Simone Biles refuses to play humble about her gymnastic achievements, and explained
in a 2019 interview with USA Today,
"It's not out of cockiness. [...] I've won five world titles and if I say, 'I'm the best
gymnast there is,' [the reaction is] 'Oh, she's cocky. Look at her now.' No, the facts
are literally on the paper."
As Biles matured, she revealed that she came to the realization,
"It's OK to show real, raw emotion. You don't have to be a robot all the time, and you don't
always have to seem happy out there."
Even with the pride she takes in her gymnastic abilities, Biles has admitted she'd like to
someday have an out-of-body experience so she could watch herself as she competed, just
so she could figure out what it is that she's doing that wins all those medals. Biles revealed,
"I really don't know how I do it sometimes."
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