Simone Biles

Lore & Background

Biles was born on March 14, 1997, in Columbus, Ohio, the third of four siblings. Her birth mother, Shanon Biles, was unable to care for Simone or her other children. All four went in and out of foster care. In 2000, Biles's maternal grandfather, Ron Biles, and his second wife, Nellie Cayetano Biles, began caring temporarily for Shanon's children in the north Houston suburb of Spring, Texas, after learning his grandchildren were in foster care. In 2003, the couple formally adopted Simone and her younger sister Adria. Ron's sister, Shanon's aunt Harriet, adopted the two oldest children. Simone holds Belizean citizenship through her adoptive mother and considers Belize to be her second home. Biles and her family are Catholic.

Reader's Guide

At the Olympic Games, Biles is a two-time gold medalist in the individual all-around (2016, 2024). She is also a two-time champion on vault (2016, 2024), the 2016 champion and 2024 silver medalist on floor exercise, and a two-time bronze medalist on balance beam (2016, 2020). Biles led the gold medal-winning U.S. teams in 2016, dubbed the 'Final Five', and in 2024, dubbed the 'Golden Girls'. At the 2020 Summer Olympics, she withdrew from most of the competition after the qualification round due to 'the twisties', a temporary loss of proprioception while performing twisting elements. She won a silver medal with the U.S. team nicknamed the 'Fighting Four'. Biles is the most-decorated gymnast of the World Championships, with 30 medals, all but seven gold. She is a six-time all-around champion (2013, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019 and 2023), six-time floor exercise champion (2013–2015, 2018–2019, 2023), and four-time balance beam champion (2014–2015, 2019, 2023), all record totals. She is also a two-time vault champion (2018–2019) and a member of a record five gold-medal-winning U.S. teams (2014–2015, 2018–2019, 2023). Domestically, Biles has won a record nine U.S. national all-around championships (2013–2016, 2018–2019, 2021, 2023–2024); in 2024, she became the oldest female gymnast to win the title. She is a seven-time champion on vault, balance beam, and floor exercise; a two-time uneven bars champion; and the only woman to win all five gold medals in a single championships twice (2018, 2024).

Did You Know?

• Biles is the sixth woman to win an individual all-around title at both the Olympics and the World Championships; she is the first since Lilia Podkopayeva in 1996 to hold both titles simultaneously.
• She is the tenth woman and first American woman to win a World medal on every event, and the first woman since Daniela Silivaș in 1988 to win a medal on every event at a single Olympics or World Championships.
• 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.
• In 2022, President Joe Biden awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
• In 2023, she won her eighth U.S. Gymnastics title, breaking the 90-year-old record held by Alfred Jochim.