138 Facts About Simone Biles

Simone Biles Owens was born on Simone Arianne Biles; March 14,1997 and is an American artistic gymnast.

In 2022, Biles was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Joe Biden.

At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Simone 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 Simone Biles was favored to win at least four of the six available gold medals, she withdrew from most of the competition due to struggles with "the twisties", a temporary loss of air balance awareness.

Simone Biles ultimately won a silver medal with the US team and a bronze medal on the balance beam.

Simone Biles is a five-time World all-around champion, five-time World floor exercise champion, three-time World balance beam champion, two-time World vault champion, a seven-time United States national all-around champion, and a member of the gold medal-winning American teams at the 2014,2015,2018, and 2019 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.

Simone Biles is a three-time World silver medalist and a three-time World bronze medalist.

Simone Biles is the gymnast with the most World medals and most World gold medals, having surpassed Vitaly Scherbo's record 23 World medals by winning her 24th and 25th, both gold, at the 2019 competition in Stuttgart.

Simone Biles is the female gymnast with the most World all-around titles.

Simone Biles 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.

Simone Biles 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 Silivas 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.

Simone Biles was born on March 14,1997, in Columbus, Ohio, the third of four siblings.

Simone Biles holds Belizean citizenship through her adoptive mother and refers to Belize as her second home.

In 2012, Simone Biles made the choice to switch from public school to home school, allowing her to increase her training from approximately 20 to 32 hours per week.

Simone Biles gained all of her secondary education as a homeschooler, graduating in mid-2015.

Simone Biles planned to defer enrollment until after the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro; in November 2014, she signed her National Letter of Intent with UCLA.

Simone Biles first tried gymnastics at age 6 during a day-care field trip.

Simone Biles soon enrolled in an optional training program at Bannon's Gymnastics.

Simone Biles began training with coach Aimee Boorman at age eight.

Simone Biles began her elite career at age 14 on July 1,2011, at the 2011 American Classic in Houston.

Simone Biles placed third all-around, first on vault and balance beam, fourth on floor exercise, and eighth on uneven bars.

Later that month, Simone Biles competed at the 2011 US Classic in Chicago, Illinois, where she placed 20th all-around, fifth on balance beam and floor exercise.

Simone Biles' first meet of 2012 was the American Classic hosted in Huntsville, Texas.

Simone Biles placed first all-around and on vault, tied for second on floor exercise, placed third on balance beam, and fourth on uneven bars.

Simone Biles later competed at the 2012 US Classic in Chicago.

Simone Biles finished first all-around and on vault, second on floor exercise, and sixth on balance beam.

Simone Biles finished third all-around, first on vault, and sixth on uneven bars, balance beam, and floor exercise.

Simone Biles led for two rotations but finished second behind her teammate, Ohashi, after a fall off the beam.

Simone Biles traveled to Jesolo, Italy to compete at the 2013 City of Jesolo Trophy.

Simone Biles took the all-around, vault, balance beam, and floor exercise titles in addition to contributing to the US team's gold medal.

Simone Biles performed poorly, falling several times, and did not compete vault after twisting her ankle on the floor exercise.

Simone Biles competed at the 2013 USA Gymnastics National Championships in August, where she was crowned the national all-around champion.

In October, Simone Biles competed at the 2013 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Antwerp, Belgium.

Simone Biles competed cleanly during the women's individual all-around and won the competition with a score of 60.216, almost a point ahead of silver medalist Ross, and almost a point and a half better than the bronze medalist, 2010 world all-around champion Aliya Mustafina.

At the age of 16, Simone Biles became the seventh American woman and the first African American to win the world all-around title.

Simone Biles finished fourth in the uneven bars final, behind China's Huang Huidan, Ross, and Mustafina.

Simone Biles won the all-around by a wide margin and took first place on vault, beam, and floor.

At the 2014 USA Gymnastics National Championships, Simone Biles repeated as national all-around champion after two days of competition, finishing more than four points ahead of silver medalist Ross, despite a fall from the balance beam during her final routine of the meet.

Simone Biles won the gold on vault and floor, tied for the silver on balance beam with Alyssa Baumann, and finished fourth on the uneven bars.

Simone Biles was selected for the Senior National Team.

On September 17, Simone Biles was selected to compete at the 2014 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Nanning, China.

Simone Biles dominated the preliminary round despite a major error on the uneven bars, qualifying in first place to the all-around, vault, beam, and floor finals, in addition to contributing to the US team's first-place qualification into the team final.

Simone Biles became the second American woman to repeat as world all-around champion, following Miller, and the first woman of any nationality to do so since Russia's Svetlana Khorkina.

Simone Biles finished behind North Korea's Hong Un Jong in the vault competition, taking her second consecutive silver medal in that event.

Simone Biles won the gold in the balance-beam final ahead of China's Bai Yawen and the gold in the floor exercise final, again, ahead of Iordache.

Simone Biles placed first with a score of 62.299,4.467 points ahead of second-place finisher US teammate MyKayla Skinner.

Later that month, Biles was nominated for the James E Sullivan Award.

Simone Biles ended the month at the 2015 City of Jesolo Trophy, winning the all-around title with 62.100.

Simone Biles scored a 16.050 on the floor and claimed first on the event, 1.050 points ahead of Douglas and ahead of Nichols and Bailie Key.

Simone Biles had a small hop on her Amanar vault and scored a 16.000.

Simone Biles then scored 15.150 on her second vault, to score an average of 15.575 and place first in the event, ahead of 2014 Worlds vault bronze medalist and teammate MyKayla Skinner, who averaged 14.950.

Simone Biles ended on bars and scored a 15.100 to claim the all-around title.

Simone Biles placed fourth in the event behind 2014 Worlds teammate Madison Kocian, Douglas, and Key.

At the 2015 US National Championships, Simone Biles secured her third all-around national title, becoming only the second woman ever to do so, 23 years after Kim Zmeskal.

Simone Biles placed first on balance beam with a 15.650 and placed fifth on uneven bars with a 15.1.

Simone Biles won the gold medal on vault and floor exercise, receiving scores of at least 16 all four times.

Simone Biles won the gold medal on balance beam and placed fourth on uneven bars.

On July 10, Simone Biles was named to the team for the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics, alongside Gabby Douglas, Laurie Hernandez, Madison Kocian, and Aly Raisman.

Simone Biles appeared with gymnasts Dominique Dawes and Nadia Comaneci in a commercial for Tide called "The Evolution of Power" prior to the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Simone Biles earned a total score of 62.198 with 15.866 on the vault, 14.966 on the uneven bars, 15.433 on the balance beam, and 15.933 on the floor.

Simone Biles had the highest scores on vault, balance beam, and floor; she had the only score over 15 on balance beam in the finals.

Simone Biles winning four gold medals was the first instance of a quadruple gold medallist in women's gymnastics at a single Games since Ecaterina Szabo in 1984, and fifth overall, after Larisa Latynina, Agnes Keleti, Vera Caslavska and Szabo.

Simone Biles joins Latynina, Caslavska and Tourischeva, as the fourth female gymnast to win every major all-around title in an Olympic cycle.

Simone Biles joined Mary Lou Retton in 1984, Shannon Miller in 1992, and Nastia Liukin in 2008, in winning five women's gymnastics medals at a single Olympiad, along with Szabo, Nadia Comaneci, and Karin Janz.

Simone Biles was chosen by Team USA to be the flag bearer in the closing ceremonies, becoming the first American female gymnast to receive this honor.

Simone Biles competed on season 24 of Dancing with the Stars, attempting to replicate her Rio teammate Laurie Hernandez's win in season 23.

Simone Biles won the gold medal on floor and balance beam and recorded the highest single vault score.

Simone Biles showed numerous upgrades to her routines from 2016, including a Fabrichnova and a Van Leeuwen on uneven bars, and a Moors on floor exercise.

Simone Biles placed first in every event over the two days of competition, the first woman to do so since Dominique Dawes in 1994.

Simone Biles won the all-around title 6.55 points ahead of second-place finisher and reigning world champion Morgan Hurd and set a record for the most national all-around titles with five.

Simone Biles was named to her seventh national team and was invited to the October selection camp for the 2018 World Championships.

Simone Biles placed first in the all-around as well as first on vault and floor exercise.

Simone Biles placed second on the uneven bars behind McCusker, and fourth on balance beam behind Kara Eaker, McCusker, and Ragan Smith.

Simone Biles debuted a new vault: a Yurchenko with a half turn onto the table with a stretched salto forward off with two full twists.

In late October, at the 2018 World Championships in Doha, Qatar, Simone Biles went to an emergency room the night before the qualification round because of stomach pains that turned out to be a kidney stone.

Simone Biles became the first defending Olympic women's all-around champion to earn a world all-around title since 1972 Olympic champion Lyudmilla Turischeva did so in 1974.

Simone Biles then won the silver medal on uneven bars behind Nina Derwael of Belgium.

Simone Biles then won the gold medal on floor exercise with a strong routine.

Simone Biles finished in first place, 3.668 points ahead of second-place Ana Padurariu of Canada.

Simone Biles won the all-around, 2.1 points ahead of second-place finisher Riley McCusker.

Simone Biles had the highest single vault score, ahead of Jade Carey and MyKayla Skinner.

Simone Biles placed first in the all-around, with a two-day combined score of 118.500.

Simone Biles placed first on vault, ahead of Jade Carey and MyKayla Skinner, first on balance beam ahead of Kara Eaker and Leanne Wong, first on floor exercise ahead of Carey and Sunisa Lee, and third on uneven bars behind Lee and Morgan Hurd.

In September, Simone Biles competed at the US World Championships trials where she placed first in the all-around, despite falling on her dismount off the uneven bars, and earned a place on the team that would compete at the 2019 World Championships in Stuttgart.

Simone Biles debuted two new eponymous skills: the Biles II on floor exercise, a triple-twisting double-tucked somersault, and the Biles on balance beam, a double-twisting double-tucked somersault dismount.

In doing so, Simone Biles surpassed Russian gymnast Svetlana Khorkina as the most-decorated female gymnast in World Championship history.

On floor exercise Simone Biles won gold with a score of 15.133, one point more than silver medalist Lee.

Furthermore, by winning her fifth gold medal on floor exercise, Simone Biles tied the record for most world titles on one apparatus with Italian Jury Chechi and Russian Svetlana Khorkina.

Simone Biles debuted a Yurchenko double pike vault, which no woman had ever completed before, on her way to another US Classic all-around title.

At the Olympic Trials, Simone Biles placed first and earned an automatic spot onto the Olympic team.

Simone Biles finished 2.266 points ahead of second-place finisher Sunisa Lee; however Lee's day two score of the competition was higher than Biles's, which was the first time anyone has posted a higher single-day all-around score than Biles since Kyla Ross in 2013.

At the 2020 Olympic Games, Simone Biles performed the all-around during the qualifications and helped the United States qualify for the team final, in second place behind the Russian team.

Simone Biles suffered several mishaps during qualifications: she bounced entirely off the floor landing on one of her tumbling passes and stepped one foot off the landing mat during her Cheng vault, and took several large stumbles back on her balance beam dismount.

Simone Biles was the only athlete to qualify for all the individual finals.

Simone Biles repeated this in the competition, balking and performing the 1.5 twist with a large lunge and near-fall on the landing, and scored just 13.766 with a difficulty score of 5.0.

Simone Biles subsequently left the competition floor and withdrew from the rest of the team competition, citing mental health issues.

Simone Biles later explained that she was inspired by fellow female Olympian Naomi Osaka, who had withdrawn from the French Open and Wimbledon Championships earlier in the year for similar reasons.

On July 28,2021, Simone Biles withdrew from the finals of the individual all-around competition, again citing mental health concerns.

Simone Biles called her bronze beam medal her most meaningful one, as she felt it symbolized her focus on mental health and her perseverance.

Simone Biles later revealed that her aunt had passed unexpectedly two days before the beam event final.

Simone Biles explained that she withdrew primarily due to experiencing "the twisties", a psychological phenomenon causing a gymnast to lose air awareness while performing twisting elements, throughout the Olympics.

Simone Biles noted that while it was not the first time she had had the twisties on vault or floor, it was the first time she experienced them on uneven bars and balance beam.

Some commentators criticized Simone Biles, accusing her of being a "quitter" or selfishly depriving another athlete of the chance to compete.

Simone Biles was named Team USA Female Olympic Athlete of the Year in December 2015, making her the fourth gymnast to win the honor.

In December 2016, Simone Biles was chosen as one of the sponsors of the US Navy aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, alongside Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer Katie Ledecky.

In 2016, Simone Biles won the Glamour Award for the Record Breaker.

Simone Biles was one of the finalists for Time's 2016 Person of the Year.

Simone Biles was nominated for a 2016 ESPY award for Best Female Athlete along with Elena Delle Donne, Katie Ledecky, and Breanna Stewart; Stewart won the award.

In 2016, Simone Biles became the third gymnast after Olga Korbut and Nadia Comaneci to be named the BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year.

In July 2017, Simone Biles won the ESPY Award for Best Female Athlete.

Simone Biles is the second gymnast to win this award after Nastia Liukin won it in 2009.

In 2017, Simone Biles won the Shorty Awards for the best in sports.

At the 2017 Teen Choice Awards, Simone Biles won favorite female athlete, and won Laureus World Sports Award for Sportswoman of the Year in 2017.

In 2017, Simone Biles was awarded the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.

In 2018, Simone Biles was inducted into the Texas Women's Hall of Fame.

In December, it was announced that Simone Biles was named ESPN The Magazine's most dominant athlete of 2018.

In February 2019, it was announced that Simone Biles was named Laureus' Sportswoman of the Year for the second time, beating out tennis players Simona Halep and Angelique Kerber, snowboarder Ester Ledecka, triathlete Daniela Ryf, and skier Mikaela Shiffrin.

Simone Biles was nominated for the 2019 ESPY Award for Best Female Athlete but lost to soccer player Alex Morgan.

In November 2019, Simone Biles won the People's Choice Award for The Game Changer of 2019.

In February 2020 Simone Biles was awarded the Laureus World Sports Award for Sportswoman of the Year for the second consecutive year and third time overall, beating out nominees Allyson Felix, Megan Rapinoe, Mikaela Shiffrin, Naomi Osaka, and Shelly-Ann Fraser.

In February 2021, Simone Biles criticized ESPN's SportsCenter for excluding women athletes in their "Greatest of All Time" picture.

On July 7,2022, Simone Biles was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest honor given to civilians, by President Joe Biden in a ceremony at the White House; she was among a group of 17 honorees that included Megan Rapinoe.

Simone Biles is the youngest person to receive this award.

Simone Biles signed with the Octagon sports agency in July 2015, which markets fellow American gymnast Aly Raisman and Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps.

Later in 2015, Simone Biles signed a deal with Core Power to become a spokesperson on its Everyday Awesome team of athletes.

In September 2016, Simone Biles became a spokesperson for Mattress Firm's program of supporting foster homes.

In 2016, Simone Biles signed a deal with Spieth America to create a line of gymnastics equipment, and another to become a spokesperson for Beats By Dr Dre.

Simone Biles was in a relationship with fellow gymnast Stacey Ervin Jr from August 2017 to March 2020.

Simone Biles has been in a relationship with professional American football player Jonathan Owens since August 2020.

Simone Biles announced her engagement to Owens on February 15,2022.

In October 2013, Simone Biles had surgery for bone spurs in her right tibia bone resulting in a three-week sidelining.

In 2014, Simone Biles had a shoulder injury resulting in withdrawal from the March 2014 American Cup.

In September 2017, Simone Biles opened up about having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder after her medical records were leaked online, revealing that she had been taking Ritalin, used to treat the condition, during the Olympics.

Simone Biles alleged that USA Gymnastics had a role in allowing the abuse to occur and subsequently covering it up.

Simone Biles did not attend court hearings held from January 16 to 24,2018, citing that she "wasn't emotionally ready to face Larry Nassar again".

At the 2018 US National Championships, Simone Biles designed and wore a teal leotard that she stated was meant to honor the survivors of Nassar's abuse, as a statement of unification.

On September 15,2021, Simone Biles testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee that she blamed "the entire system" for enabling and perpetuating Nassar's crimes, saying that USA Gymnastics and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee "failed to do their jobs".

Simone Biles is well known for performing difficult skills at a high level of execution.