Simone Biles is a 24 year old American gymnast born in Columbus, Ohio and from Spring, Texas. During her 9 year international career thus far at the senior level, Simone Biles has earned the title by many admirers as the best gymnast to ever grace the sport.
It all started off at the 2013 World Artistic Gymnastics Championship in Antwerp, Belgium where Simone Biles would win Gold in the Individual All-around and floor exercises, Silver in the Vault, and Bronze on the Balance Beam (This was good enough to win the gold medal count for women at this world championship, and for making the USA finish second in the overall gold medal count). Yet, as good as two gold medals were at a World Championship, Simone Biles decided that was not good enough and pushed for more golds, winning the Gold Medal in Team all-around, Individual all-around, Balance beam, and Floor, while getting Silver in Vault at the 2014 World Artistic Gymnastics Championship in Nanning, PR China. Simone Biles gold medals won the USA the overall men and women Gold Medal Count for that World Championship. At the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championship, again Simone Biles would lead the USA by winning the Gold Medal in the Team all-around, Individual all-around, the Balance Beam, and the Floor, while finishing with a Bronze in the Vault. Her gold medals along with teammates Madison Kochian’s Gold Medal in the Uneven Bars (there was a 4 way tie for first in this competition that year) gave the USA the first place in the overall Gold Medal Count for that World Championship.
These first three performances at the World Championships meant that Simone Biles, already a 3x World Champion in certain disciplines, and overall 10x World Champion, was a shoe-in for the 2016 Olympics. And, while at the 2016 Olympics, Simone Biles introduced herself to the rest of the world who do not follow the World Championships, and she dominated. She won the Gold Medal in the Team all-around, the Individual all-around, the Vault, and Floor exercise, while she also won the Bronze Medal on the Balance beam. Her gold medals were enough for the USA to finish first in the Gold Medal Count for Gymnastics at the 2016 Olympics.
Simone Biles returned to elite level at the 2018 World Artistic Gymnastics Championship in Doha, Qatar. Here, Simone Biles would win the Gold Medal in Team all-around, the Individual all-around, the Vault, and the Floor, while finishing with a Silver Medal in the Uneven bars, and a Bronze Medal on the Balance beam. She finished this World Championship with a medal in every event for women, and her gold medals and two other medals were good enough to tie the top of the Gold Medal Count, with teammates Morgan Hurd’s and Sam Mikulak’s medals winning the tiebreaker for the USA to win that year’s Gold Medal count.
Yet, Simone Biles was not done quite yet. Her best performance ever came in the 2019 World Artistic Gymnastics Championship in Stuttgart, Germany. In a city known for horse-power, Simone Biles showed the world of gymnastics that human-power too was incredible, winning the Gold Medal in the Team, Individual all-around, Vault, Balance Beam, and Floor! Simone Biles finished with 5 gold medals, which was enough to secure the USA the Gold Medal count winners at that year’s Olympics, with the USA finishing with 2 more gold medals than second place Russia.
And, if you think that is impressive, note that Simone Biles has even won more gold medals and silver medals. She has won 2 Gold Medals (2015 Arlington, 2019 Stuttgart) and 1 Silver Medal (2013 Worcester) in the FIG All-Around World Cup, while also winning 2 Gold Medals at the Pacific Rim Championship (2016 Everet) to name two other competitions of lesser value than the World Championships and Olympics.
And yet, Simone Biles continued on to win the Silver Medal in the Team all-around at the 2020 Olympics.
Simone Biles thus far has already become the gymnast with the most World Championship medals (25) and gold medals (19) of all-time. Simone Biles has many more accomplishments as well, but there are too many to count. As it is, she has won a World Championship gold in every competition. Her gold medals alone would have been good enough to win the gold medal count at three different World Championships, and 1 Olympics for gymnastics.
Yet, now, she is struggling with something most of us have dealt with at one point or another, mental health problems. And, given the dangers of competing in gymnastics, especially at such a high level, Simone Biles does not feel capable of pushing through.
As Americans, we should be standing by her side, and not trying to gain points by bad mouthing her or her legacy. I think some people have probably mistaken her for what she stands for, and may not know her legacy and how she has represented the USA. For Americans, we became blessed with the presence of Michael Phelps in the pool, who became not only the best swimmer of all-time, but also the best Olympian of all-time. With 23 Olympic Golds, 3 Olympic Silvers, 2 Olympic Bronze, 27 World Championship Golds, 6 World Championship Silvers, and 1 World Championship Bronze, plus countless other medals in other tournaments, Michael Phelps became an American hero. But, so too has Simone Biles.
When questioning Simone Biles and her character, what stands out to me is what she has done when less people were watching. A lot of people with opinions are not gymnastics fans, and thus have only paid attention to her at the Olympics. Therefore, they may not realize how consistent and dominant Simone Biles has been. And, when many of us were not watching her at the World Championships, she represented the USA better than any gymnasts has represented any other nation before showing her real character.
But, her story cannot be complete without mentioning her faith and interesting background. Simone Biles has even more character once you realize that she is religious too. This part is often not talked about enough. She is a practicing Catholic. Furthermore, she is a citizen of Belize, in addition to the USA, and is adopted. These facts I find very good for Simone’s story because it shows that she is connected to not just Americans, but the whole world, whether it be through her gymnastics career, her global faith community, her adopted background, or her dual citizenship. Just think if she had chosen to represent Belize instead?
And, her story cannot even be completed there. Because, it is worth reminding those negative of Simone Biles, that giving up on her would be the ultimate betrayal to an American athlete that has given so much to the sport and to her country, and did not give up on it through her most difficult periods. Remember the sexual assault scandal that rocked US Gymnastics and others like Michigan State? Simone Biles was a victim of that. And, when it would have been understandable for her to leave US Gymnastics after that traumatic experience, she stayed representing her country in ultimate fashion! She did not give up on the USA then, so we should not give up on her now when she needs us.
Whether the illustrious gymnastics career of Simone Biles is done or just at a temporary stopping point, at least we can all say we witnessed greatness while it lasted. So, before you go criticizing the best gymnasts of all-time, know that in the future, you will be wishing you could see her win even more golds, thinking to yourself how lucky you were to witness greatness.
KTH 