Simone Biles

Simone Biles is an American artistic gymnast. She is the most decorated gymnast in history, and she is widely considered the greatest of all time. Her seven Olympic gymnastics medals are ninth-most of all time and tied with Shannon Miller for the most by a U.S. gymnast. She has won more Gymnastics World Championships medals than anyone else: 30, primarily gold.

At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Biles won individual gold medals in the all-around, vault, and floor; bronze on balance beam; and gold as part of the United States team, dubbed the "Final Five". At the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, where she was favored to win at least four of the six available gold medals, she withdrew from most of the competition due to "the twisties", a temporary loss of air awareness while performing twisting elements. She won a silver medal with her team and a bronze medal on the balance beam.

Biles is a six-time World all-around champion (2013–2015, 2018–2019, 2023), six-time World floor exercise champion (2013–2015, 2018–2019, 2023), four-time World balance beam champion (2014–2015, 2019, 2023), two-time World vault champion (2018–2019), an eight-time United States national all-around champion (2013–2016, 2018–2019, 2021, 2023), and a member of the gold medal-winning American teams at the 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019, and 2023 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. She is also a four-time World silver medalist (2013-2014 and 2023 on vault, 2018 on uneven bars) and a four-time World bronze medalist (2015 on vault, 2013 and 2018 on balance beam).

Biles is the gymnast with the most World medals (30) and most World gold medals (23), having surpassed Vitaly Scherbo's record 23 World medals by winning her 24th and 25th, both gold, at the 2019 competition in Stuttgart. She is the female gymnast with the most World all-around titles (6). She is 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. She is the tenth female gymnast and first American female gymnast to win a World medal on every event, and the first female gymnast since Daniela Silivaș in 1988 to win a medal on every event at a single Olympic Games or World Championships, having accomplished this feat at the 2018 World Championships in Doha. In 2022, Joe Biden awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2023, she won her eighth U.S. Gymnastics title, breaking the 90-year-old U.S. Gymnastics title record previously held by Alfred Jochim. (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Family Note

Per The Root in April 2016: "Born in Columbus, Ohio, Simone is actually the biological grandchild of Ron and Nellie Biles. While battling drug addiction, Ron Biles’ daughter bore eight children, who wound up in the foster-care system. Simone was one of the eight. The Bileses adopted two of the girls, Simone and her younger sister Adria. Two other children live with Ron Biles’ sister, two others were adopted out of the family and the remaining pair are with their birth mother in Ohio."

Sources

• Crosley, Hillary. "World Champion Gymnast Focuses on Talent, Not Racism." The Root, published 23 April 2016. < archival link > Accessed 22 October 2023.
• "Simone Arianne Biles." Ohio Births via MyHeritage. < link > Accessed 22 October 2023.
  • Note: Since Biles was adopted, this is an amended birth certificate index; as a result, it gives her adoptive mother's surname at birth in the "Mother Maiden Name" field.
• "Simone Biles." Wikipedia, revision of 21 October 2023. < link > Accessed 22 October 2023.