Simone Biles

By the time Simone Arianne Biles Owens reached the sport’s biggest stages, gymnastics had to stretch its vocabulary around her. Born March 14, 1997, in Columbus, Ohio, and raised in the north Houston suburb of Spring, Texas, Biles became an American artistic gymnast whose totals stand almost beyond comparison: 11 Olympic medals and 30 World Championship medals, making her the most decorated gymnast in history. She is widely regarded as one of the greatest gymnasts of all time, and one of the greatest female athletes in history.

Her early life was marked by change before it settled into family and routine. Biles was the third of four siblings, and when her birth mother, Shanon Biles, was unable to care for the children, all four went in and out of foster care. In 2000, her maternal grandfather Ron Biles and his second wife, Nellie Cayetano Biles, began caring for Simone and her siblings in Texas. In 2003, they formally adopted Simone and her younger sister, Adria, while Ron’s sister Harriet adopted the two oldest children. Biles holds Belizean citizenship through her adoptive mother and considers Belize her second home. She and her family are Catholic.

Gymnastics entered her life almost by accident. At age six, during a day-care field trip, Biles first tried the sport; instructors suggested she continue, and she soon enrolled in an optional training program at Bannon’s Gymnastics. She began training with coach Aimee Boorman at age eight. In 2012, she switched from public school to home schooling, increasing her training from about 20 to 32 hours a week, and earned her high-school diploma in mid-2015. She verbally committed to UCLA in 2014, but in 2015 announced she would turn professional and forfeit NCAA eligibility.

Once she reached senior competition, Biles’s rise was fast and emphatic. She made her senior international debut in 2013 at the American Cup and soon after won all-around, vault, balance beam, and floor exercise titles at the City of Jesolo Trophy. At the World Championships, she became a six-time all-around champion, a six-time floor exercise champion, and a four-time balance beam champion, all record totals. She also became the tenth woman and first American woman to win a World medal on every event. Biles is the originator of the most difficult skill on women’s vault, balance beam, and floor exercise; so far, she is the only gymnast to attempt them.

At the Olympics, Biles led the U.S. women to team gold in 2016 with the “Final Five” and again in 2024 with the “Golden Girls.” She won individual all-around gold in both 2016 and 2024, plus gold medals on vault in both Games, floor exercise gold in 2016, floor silver in 2024, and balance beam bronze in 2016 and 2020. At the 2020 Summer Olympics, after being favored to win at least four of the six available gold medals, she withdrew from most of the competition after the qualification round because of “the twisties,” a temporary loss of proprioception while performing twisting elements. She still won team silver with the “Fighting Four.”

Her honors outside competition underline how far her influence has reached: President Joe Biden awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2022, and she has won Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year four times, along with Comeback of the Year once. Yet the appeal of Biles’s words is tied to the same clear-eyed spirit visible in her career. “Always work hard and have fun in what you do,” she has said, “because that’s when you’re more successful.” In a sport measured by difficulty, control, and nerve, that plain advice still lands with unusual force.