Simone Biles

Simone Biles
Born	Simone Arianne Biles 3/14/1997
Birthplace	Columbus, Ohio, United States
Nationality	American
Occupation	Artistic gymnast
Known for	Olympic and World Championship gymnastics; named skills in the gymnastics Code of Points
Education	University of the People (enrolled)
Spouse(s)	Jonathan Owens (m. 2023)
Awards	7 Olympic medals (4 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze); 30 World Championship medals

1. Simone Biles

Simone Arianne Biles (born March 14, 1997) is an American artistic gymnast whose competitive record has made her the most decorated gymnast in World Artistic Gymnastics Championships history. With an unprecedented combination of difficulty, execution, and consistency, Biles has accumulated seven Olympic medals and thirty World Championship medals across her senior career, a record unmatched by any gymnast of any nationality. Her public decision to withdraw from several events at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo in order to protect her mental health sparked a global conversation about athlete well-being and the pressures of elite sport. Returning to competition at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, she claimed three gold medals and one silver, cementing a legacy defined not only by athletic achievement but also by candor about the human cost of competitive excellence. Biles grew up in Spring, Texas, where she was raised by her maternal grandparents, who later adopted her, and first discovered gymnastics through a recreational visit to a local gym at age six.

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1. 1. Early Life

Simone Arianne Biles was born on March 14, 1997, in Columbus, Ohio, the third of four children born to Shanon Biles. Her mother struggled with substance use, and Biles and her siblings were placed in the Ohio foster care system. Her maternal grandfather, Ron Biles, and his wife, Nellie Biles, who lived in Spring, Texas, stepped in to provide care. Ron and Nellie Biles formally adopted Simone and her younger sister Adria in 2003, when Simone was six years old; her two older siblings were adopted by Nellie's sister.

Biles has spoken openly about her upbringing, describing Ron and Nellie Biles as her parents in every meaningful sense. She has said she learned of the details of her early childhood only as a teenager and has declined to frame the circumstances as a source of grievance. Growing up in Spring, Texas, she was an energetic child, and at around age six a day-care class trip to Bannon's Gymnastics introduced her to the sport that would define her career. A letter was sent home to Nellie Biles suggesting that Simone had natural ability and ought to be enrolled in classes. She began formal training shortly thereafter.

Biles was coached for much of her formative development by Aimee Boorman, who began working with her when Biles was a young child and remained her primary coach through the 2016 Olympics. After Boorman relocated, Biles later trained at World Champions Centre, a gym founded by her parents in Spring, Texas, working primarily under coaches Laurent and Cécile Landi beginning in 2018.

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1. 1. Education

Biles was home-schooled for much of her adolescence, a common arrangement among elite gymnasts whose training schedules are incompatible with traditional school calendars. She later enrolled at University of the People, an online nonprofit university, pursuing studies while balancing her athletic commitments.

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1. 1. Career

1. 1. 1. Junior Career

Biles began competing at the junior elite level in 2011 and quickly distinguished herself through a combination of explosive power, precise technique, and an unusually high difficulty ceiling. She qualified as a junior national gymnast and began attracting attention within the gymnastics community for skills whose difficulty surpassed what was standard for her age group.

1. 1. 1. Senior Debut and Early World Championships (2013–2015)

Biles made her senior international debut in 2013. That year at the 2013 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Antwerp, Belgium, she won the all-around gold medal, becoming the first African American woman to claim the world all-around title. She successfully defended that title in 2014 and 2015, establishing a dominance in the all-around that was unlike anything the sport had seen in the modern era.

At the 2015 World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, Biles won four gold medals and one bronze, bringing her career World Championship medal total to ten by the end of that competition cycle.

1. 1. 1. 2016 Rio Olympic Games

At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Biles led the United States women's gymnastics team, nicknamed the "Final Five," to team gold. She went on to win the individual all-around, vault, and floor exercise gold medals, as well as a bronze on balance beam, finishing the Games with four gold medals and one bronze — the most medals won by an American gymnast at a single Olympics.

During preparations for the 2016 Games, a data breach of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) systems by the hacking group Fancy Bear revealed that Biles had a therapeutic use exemption for the stimulant methylphenidate (Ritalin), prescribed for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Biles addressed the matter directly and publicly, confirming her ADHD diagnosis and the legitimacy of her exemption, and stating that she had nothing to be ashamed of.

1. 1. 1. Larry Nassar Abuse Disclosure

In January 2018, Biles publicly disclosed that she was among the hundreds of athletes sexually abused by Larry Nassar, the former USA Gymnastics team doctor who was subsequently sentenced to prison. In a statement posted to social media, Biles wrote that she had felt compelled to come forward both to validate other survivors and because she feared silence would make her complicit in protecting an institution that had failed its athletes. She later testified before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2021, delivering emotional remarks in which she criticized both USA Gymnastics and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for their failures to act on reports about Nassar.

1. 1. 1. 2019 World Championships

At the 2019 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Stuttgart, Germany, Biles won five gold medals, becoming the most decorated gymnast — male or female — in World Championship history. She debuted two new skills at that competition, both of which were subsequently named after her in the Code of Points governing the sport: a double-double dismount on balance beam and a triple-double on floor exercise. Skills named after Biles in the Code of Points span multiple apparatus, a distinction she shares with virtually no other gymnast in the sport's history.

1. 1. 1. 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Mental Health Withdrawal

At the 2020 Summer Olympics (held in 2021 in Tokyo due to the COVID-19 pandemic), Biles withdrew from the team final after one vault rotation and subsequently withdrew from the individual all-around, vault, uneven bars, and floor exercise finals, citing a mental health condition she described as "the twisties" — a dangerous disorientation in the air in which a gymnast loses awareness of their spatial position during twisting skills, creating a significant risk of injury. She returned to compete in the balance beam final, where she won a bronze medal.

The withdrawal generated substantial public debate. Biles received broad support from fellow athletes, mental health advocates, and many public figures, while also becoming the subject of criticism from commentators who characterized her actions as a failure of competitive commitment. Biles addressed the controversy in subsequent interviews, speaking about the psychological toll of elite competition, the Nassar abuse, and the specific technical danger posed by the twisties in high-difficulty gymnastics.

1. 1. 1. Return to Competition (2023–2024)

After an extended hiatus from elite competition, Biles returned to the competition floor in August 2023 at the U.S. Classic, posting scores that indicated she had continued to develop her difficulty during the break. At the 2023 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Antwerp, she won four gold medals and one silver, adding further to her record total of World Championship medals.

At the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, Biles helped the United States win team gold and went on to claim the individual all-around gold — her second Olympic all-around title — as well as gold on floor exercise. She won silver on vault, bringing her overall Olympic medal total to seven. Her performance in Paris, at age 27, was received as a significant moment in the narrative of an athlete who had openly confronted the limits of what elite sport demands of those who pursue it.

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1. 1. Personal Life

Biles has been open about her Christian faith, which she has cited as a source of stability during difficult periods in her career. She is also a vocal advocate for mental health awareness, drawing on her own public experiences to encourage athletes and others to seek help when needed.

In February 2022, Biles announced her engagement to Jonathan Owens, a professional American football safety who plays in the National Football League. The couple married in a courthouse ceremony in Harris County, Texas, in April 2023, followed by a formal wedding celebration in May 2023. Owens has played for the Houston Texans and, subsequently, the Green Bay Packers.

Biles has also used her public platform to speak about the failures of institutions responsible for protecting young athletes, most notably in her activism around the Nassar case and the accountability of USA Gymnastics and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee.

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1. 1. Recognition

Biles has received numerous honors across her career. She was named Sports Illustrated's Sportsperson of the Year in 2016, one of the publication's most prominent annual distinctions. Time magazine has included her on its list of the 100 most influential people in the world on multiple occasions. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Joe Biden in 2022, the highest civilian honor in the United States.

Biles has been the subject of a documentary film, *Simone Biles: Rising*, as well as earlier documentary coverage. She has appeared on numerous magazine covers and has partnered with various commercial sponsors, including Athleta, with whom she signed following her public criticism of Nike's handling of athlete pregnancies. Four skills in the gymnastics Code of Points bear her name, a testament to the technical originality she brought to the sport.

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1. 1. Legacy

Simone Biles occupies a singular position in the history of gymnastics. Her competitive record — thirty World Championship medals, seven Olympic medals, and skills named in her honor across multiple apparatus — constitutes an achievement with no direct precedent in the sport. Beyond statistics, her willingness to discuss mental health, abuse, and institutional accountability has influenced how elite athletics is discussed and how governing bodies are scrutinized.

Her Tokyo withdrawal reshaped public conversation about the obligations placed on elite athletes and whether athletic excellence can or should be separated from an athlete's broader humanity. Her subsequent return in Paris was interpreted by many observers as confirmation that vulnerability and competitive ambition are not incompatible. Whether future gymnasts match her records, they will do so in a sport whose culture Biles, more than any other individual of her era, has helped redefine.

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1. 1. References

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1. 1. Categories

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