Simone Biles: The World's Most Decorated Gymnast

Simone Biles, the 27-year-old Team USA gymnast, has just added three more gold medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics to her collection, bringing her total to eleven Olympic medals and 30 World Championship medals. Hailed as one of the GOATs of the sport, Biles is not only the most decorated gymnast in U.S. history, but also worldwide.

Born in Columbus, Ohio, Biles was adopted along with her younger sister Adria by her grandparents and grew up in Texas. She had her first taste of gymnastics aged just six years old and competed for the first time in the American Classic in Houston in 2011, followed by her senior international debut at the American Cup in 2013, a FIG World Cup event. That same year, aged only 16, Biles was crowned as the all-around champion of the USA Gymnastics National Championships, marking the seventh time that an American woman had won the title and the first time for an African American woman.

To date, Biles has also been recognized with a host of titles including, but not limited to, Sportswoman of the Year by the Women's Sports Foundation's, Female Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press, Overseas Sports Personality of the Year by the BBC, Sportswoman of the Year by the Women's Sports Foundation and Best Female Athlete ESPY Award. At age 25, she was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, making her the youngest person ever to receive the award.

Biles’ first Olympic event was the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, where she won four gold medals and one bronze. At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which were delayed to 2021 due to the Covid-pandemic, she added to her accomplishments with a silver medal in the team event and a bronze in the balance beam. However, Biles had to withdraw from the competition that year due to experiencing a phenomenon known as the “twisties”, a mental block where gymnasts become disoriented mid-air, which can prove extremely dangerous. Prioritizing her mental health, she decided to take two years off from competitions.

Biles has spoken openly about having struggled with her mental health and has become a prominent voice and advocate for the wellbeing of gymnasts. In 2018, she was one of several high profile athletes to speak out against Larry Nassar, a former U.S. national gymnastics team doctor who was later convicted of sexually abusing at least 265 young women and girls.

In 2023, Biles returned to competition once more at the U.S. National Championships, where she became the first gymnast ever to win eight all-around titles as well as the oldest woman to win the all-around. Her spree continued soon after at the World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium, where she won four more golds and a silver. In her latest feat, Biles has been competing at the Summer Olympics in Paris, where she has led Team USA to gold yet again.

In addition to her multiple wins, over the course of her career she has also had a total of five gymnastics moves named after her. This happens when a skill is completed for the first time by a gymnast in an international competition.

Biles is widely considered to have played an important role in shifting the culture of gymnastics away from one of toxicity and towards one that is more supportive of athletes’ mental health, promoting the idea that it is possible to be successful while having fun. But in terms of representation too, she has had a significant impact. Speaking on the topic in a 2020 interview with Vogue, she said: “When you see a team where everyone has a different ethnicity and you're the little girl watching on TV and you say 'I look like her,' it makes you feel like you can do it too. Believing that they can do it is what opens up more kids to the sport. I don’t look at my comments too much, but when I see kids get super excited, it’s inspiring to me. I think it’s neat that I can be a role model by just being myself.”