Simone Biles: American Gymnastic Powerhouse

1 0 1 161 0

Simone Biles, in full Simone Arianne Biles, (born March 14, 1997, Columbus, Ohio, U.S.), American gymnast who was considered one of the sport’s greatest athletes.

Her seven Olympic medals tied with Shannon Miller for the most Olympic medals won by an American gymnast and is the equal ninth-most overall.

Having won 25 World Championship medals, she is the most decorated gymnast in the history of the Gymnastics World Championships and is considered by many to be the greatest gymnast of all time.

At the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, she became the first female U.S. gymnast to win four gold medals at a single Games, and she was the first gymnast to win three consecutive world all-around titles (2013–15).

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

Early Life

Simone Biles grew up in Spring, Texas, in the Houston metropolitan area, after she and her sister Adria were adopted by their grandparents.

Simone became interested in gymnastics at age six during a day-care field trip to Bannon’s Gymnastix, and she remained there for 11 years under the direction of her coach, Aimee Boorman.

Biles won a gold in floor exercise and a bronze in vault at the Women’s Junior Olympic National Championships in 2010 before breaking into the elite level of competition in 2011.

Less than two years later she dominated the sport.

Career

In 2013, her first year as a senior competitor, the 4-foot 9-inch (1.45-metre) Biles won the all-around title at her first world gymnastics championships, becoming the first African American woman to claim the title.

She also prevailed in the floor exercise, earned the silver medal in vault, and took home the bronze medal in balance beam.

Biles rose to fame in 2013 – winning two World Championship golds aged just 16, including the all-around title. She followed that with four world golds in 2014 and another four in 2015.

Biles claimed her third consecutive U.S. all-around title in 2015, becoming the first woman to accomplish that feat since Kim Zmeskal in 1992.

At the 2015 World Championships, she completed her hat trick of all-around titles. She also secured the balance beam and floor exercise titles, the bronze medal in vault, and a share of the team title.

Those wins brought her career total to 14 world championship medals, the most ever earned by a U.S. gymnast, male or female. In addition, her 10 world championship gold medals were the most won by a female gymnast in the sport’s history.

Biles, who was too young to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics, was a favourite entering the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.

By the time Rio 2016 – her first Olympics – rolled around, she was already a superstar and the hottest of hot favourites for the title. She didn’t disappoint: Biles won gold in the all-around, team, vault, and floor, and bronze on the beam.

She also won the floor and vault events, becoming the fifth female gymnast to claim four gold medals at a single Olympics.

Biles also captured a bronze in the balance beam to bring her medal total to five.

At the 2018 U.S. national championships, she became the first female gymnast in nearly 25 years to win all five events, including a record-setting fifth all-around title.

Biles became the most-decorated female gymnast in world championships history when she won four golds (including another all-around title), one silver, and one bronze at the 2018 championships to bring her career total at that competition to 20 medals.

Biles continued to make history in 2019. At that year’s world championship, she became the first gymnast in more than six decades to win five gold medals, including one in the all-around event.

In addition, Biles bypassed Vitaly Scherbo of Belarus to become the gymnast with the most world championship medals (25). Also in 2019, she won five medals at the U.S. national championships, four of which were gold.

At the 2021 U.S. Classic, she became the first female gymnast to land the sport’s most difficult vault, the Yurchenko double pike, during a competition.

Later that year she competed at the U.S. national championships, where she captured her seventh all-around title. She also won three other gold medals and one bronze.

Remarkable Achievements

1) Biles is the gymnast with the most World medals (25) and most World gold medals (19), having surpassed Vitaly Scherbo's record 23 World medals by winning her 24th and 25th, both gold, at the 2019 competition in Stuttgart.

2) She is the female gymnast with the most World all-around titles.

3) 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.

4) She is the tenth female gymnast and first American female gymnast to win a World medal in every event, and the first female gymnast since Daniela Silivaș in 1988 to win a medal in every event at a single Olympic Games or World Championships, having accomplished this feat at the 2018 World Championships in Doha.

5) In 2023, Biles won her eighth U.S. Gymnastics title, thus breaking the 90-year-old U.S. Gymnastics title record previously held by Alfred Jochim.

Conclusion

Simone Biles' dominance is built on an utter mastery of gymnastic basics: with a tiny 4 foot 8 frame, incredible athletic ability, and power, plus a low center of gravity, she is built to be the ultimate gymnast. Add in supreme levels of hard work, a great imagination when it comes to her craft, and megawatt levels of personality, and she is almost unbeatable.