Simone Biles is the most dominant American female gymnast of the last 25 years. Simone’s birth mother was unable to care for her and her siblings due to a drug problem, and her father abandoned the family, so the now champion gymnast was adopted by her grandparents and moved to Texas to live with them at the age of six. Simone began training with Aimee Boorman at age eight who coached her all the way through her Olympic victories.
In her first year competing in the senior gymnastics division in 2013, Simone did poorly, falling multiple times at the 2013 U.S. Classic. After further training and help from a sports psychologist, Simone locked in her routines and qualified for the all-around and all four event finals at the World Championship in Antwerp. She was the first American to do so since Shannon Miller in 1991. Simone won the gold in the all-around and floor exercise. Her dominance increased as she took Gold in multiple events at World Championships in 2014 in Nanning and 2015 in Glasgow.
At the Rio Olympics in 2016, Simone took home four Gold medals and a Bronze, tying the historic records of Mary Lou Retton and Shannon Miller for number of medals won at a single Olympics. Simone took Gold in the all-around, vault, floor exercise, and team competitions. After the Olymipcs, she announced she was taking the 2017 year off. She won the ESPY award for Best Female Athlete in 2017. Simone has also confirmed that she was assaulted by USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, in which she and other athletes assaulted by Nassar were awarded the Arthur Ashe Courage Award in May 2018. Simone is back in the news again and coming off her hiatus by training hard and posting videos online of her amazing moves.
