Introduction
Simone Biles, whose real name is Simone Arianne Biles Owens (born March 14, 1997), is an American artistic gymnast. Her 11 Olympic medals and 30 World Championship medals make her the most decorated gymnast in history. She is widely regarded as one of the greatest gymnasts of all time and one of the greatest female athletes in history. With 11 Olympic medals, she is tied with Věra Čáslavská as the second-most decorated female Olympic gymnast behind Larisa Latynina, and she holds the record for the most Olympic medals earned by a U.S. gymnast.
At the Olympic Games, Biles is a two-time gold medalist in the individual all-around (2016, 2024). She is also a two-time champion on vault (2016, 2024), the 2016 champion and 2024 silver medalist on floor exercise, and a two-time bronze medalist on balance beam (2016, 2020). Biles led the gold medal–winning United States teams in 2016, known as the “Final Five,” and in 2024, known as the…
Known as part of the “Golden Girls,” Simone Biles entered the 2020 Summer Olympics as the favorite to win at least four of the six available gold medals. However, she withdrew from most events after the qualification round due to “the twisties,” a temporary loss of air awareness during twisting skills. She still earned a silver medal with the United States team, nicknamed the “Fighting Four.”
At the World Championships, Biles is the most decorated artistic gymnast—male or female—in history, with 30 total medals, including 23 gold. She is a six-time individual all-around champion (2013, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2023), a six-time floor exercise champion (2013–2015, 2018–2019, 2023), and a four-time balance beam champion (2014–2015, 2019, 2023), all record totals. She is also a two-time vault champion (2018–2019) and a member of a record five gold medal–winning U.S. teams (2014–2015, 2018–2019, 2023).
Additionally, Biles has earned four World silver medals (2013–2014 and 2023 on vault, 2018 on uneven bars) and three World bronze medals (2015 on vault, 2013 and 2018 on balance beam).
Biles is the sixth woman to win an individual all-around title at both the Olympics and the World Championships, and the first since Lilia Podkopayeva in 1996 to hold both titles at the same time. She is the tenth female gymnast—and the first American woman—to earn a World medal on every event. She is also the first female gymnast since Daniela Silivaș in 1988 to win a medal on every event at a single Olympics or World Championships. Biles is the originator of the most difficult skill on multiple apparatuses, further elevating her status as a pioneer in the sport.
She is the originator of the most difficult elements on women’s vault, balance beam, and floor exercise, and remains the only gymnast to attempt each of these skills in competition. In 2022, President Joe Biden awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2023, she claimed her eighth U.S. Gymnastics title, breaking the 90-year-old national record previously held by Alfred Jochim. Biles has also been honored with the Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year award four times (2017, 2019, 2020, 2025) and earned the Comeback of the Year award in 2024.
Early life and education
Biles was born on March 14, 1997, in Columbus, Ohio, as the third of four siblings. Her birth mother, Shanon Biles, was unable to care for Simone or her other children, and all four siblings went in and out of foster care.
In 2000, Simone’s maternal grandfather, Ron Biles, and his second wife, Nellie Cayetano Biles, began caring for the children in the north Houston suburb of Spring, Texas, after learning they were in foster care.
In 2003, the couple formally adopted Simone and her younger sister Adria, while Ron’s sister, Harriet, adopted the two older siblings. Simone also holds Belizean citizenship through her adoptive mother and considers Belize her second home. Biles and her family are Catholic.
Biles attended Benfer Elementary School in Harris County, Texas. In 2012, she switched from public school to home schooling, which allowed her to increase her training from about 20 to 32 hours a week. She earned her high-school diploma in mid-2015. Biles verbally committed to UCLA on August 4, 2014, and signed a National Letter of Intent in November 2014, planning to defer enrollment until after the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Instead, on July 29, 2015, she announced that she would turn professional and forfeit her NCAA eligibility to compete for UCLA.
Early gymnastics career
Biles first tried gymnastics at age 6 during a day-care field trip. The instructors suggested she continue with the sport, and Biles soon enrolled in an optional training program at Bannon’s Gymnastics. She began training with coach Aimee Boorman at age eight.
2011–12: Junior elite
Biles began her elite gymnastics career at age 14 on July 1, 2011, at the 2011 American Classic in Houston. She placed third all-around, first on vault and balance beam, fourth on floor exercise, and eighth on uneven bars. Later that month, Biles competed at the 2011 U.S. Classic in Chicago, Illinois, where she placed 20th all-around, fifth on vault and floor exercise.
Biles’s placement in the American Classic secured her a spot to compete at the 2012 USA Gymnastics National Championships.[34] She later competed at the 2012 U.S. Classic in Chicago. She finished first all-around and on vault, second on floor exercise, and sixth on balance beam.
In June, she made her second appearance at the U.S. National Championships in St. Louis, Missouri. She finished third all-around, first on vault, and sixth on uneven bars, balance beam, and floor exercise] After this performance, Biles was named to the U.S. Junior National Team by a committee headed by Márta Károlyi, the National Team Coordinator (2001–2016).
Senior gymnastics career
2013
Biles’s senior international debut was in March at the 2013 American Cup, a FIG World Cup event. She and Katelyn Ohashi were named as replacements for Elizabeth Price and 2012 Olympic gold medalist Kyla Ross, both of whom withdrew from the competition because of injuries. Biles led for two rotations but finished second behind her teammate, Ohashi, after a fall off the beam.
Biles traveled to Jesolo, Italy, to compete at the 2013 City of Jesolo Trophy. She took the all-around, vault, balance beam, and floor exercise titles in addition to contributing to the U.S. team’s gold medal. She and the U.S. delegation next competed at an international tri-meet in Chemnitz, Germany, against teams from Germany and Romania. The U.S. won the team gold medal. In addition, Biles won the vault, balance beam, and floor titles, and tied for second in the all-around, behind Kyla Ross, after a fall on the uneven bars.
In July, Biles competed at the 2013 U.S. Classic. She performed poorly, falling several times, and did not compete vault after twisting her ankle on the floor exercise. In the aftermath of this poor performance, Biles consulted a sports psychologist whom she credits with helping her anxiety and confidence issues and allowing her to begin her streak of dominance in the sport.
In October, Biles competed at the 2013 World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium. She qualified first in the all-around, second to the vault final, sixth to the uneven bars final, fifth to the balance beam final, and first to the floor final, making her the first American gymnast to qualify to the all-around and all four event finals since Shannon Miller in 1991. 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 the silver medalist.
Ross, and almost a point and a half better than the bronze medalist, 2010 world all-around champion Aliya Mustafina. Biles subsequently had surgery for bone spurs in her right tibia, sidelining her for three weeks.
At the age of 16, Biles became the seventh American woman and the first African American to win the world all-around title. In the event finals, she won silver on the vault, behind defending world champion and Olympic silver medalist McKayla Maroney and ahead of 2008 Olympic gold medalist Hong Un Jong of North Korea; bronze on the balance beam, behind Mustafina and Ross; and gold on the floor exercise, ahead of Italy’s Vanessa Ferrari and Romania’s Larisa Iordache. She finished fourth in the uneven bars final, behind China’s Huang Huidan, Ross, and Mustafina.
2016 Summer Olympics
On August 7, Biles competed in the Women’s Qualification at the 2016 Summer Olympics, helping the U.S. team to qualify in first place to the final with a score of 185.238 (9.959 points ahead of the second-place team, China). She also qualified as the top gymnast in four of the five individual finals: the all-around with a score of 62.416, vault with an average score of 16.050, balance beam with a score of 15.633, and floor exercise with a score of 15.733.
On August 9, Biles won her first Olympic gold medal in the gymnastics team event. The only gymnast for Team USA to compete in all four events in the final, she contributed an all-around score of 61.833 (15.933 on vault, 14.800 on bars, 15.300 on beam, and 15.800 on floor) as the Americans won the gold with a score of 184.897, more than 8 points ahead of the silver-medal Russian team.
Biles won the gold medal in the individual all-around on August 11, ahead of teammate Aly Raisman and Russia’s Aliya Mustafina. 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. Biles had the highest scores on vault, balance beam, and floor; she had the only score over 15 on balance beam in the finals. She and Raisman became the second pair of American gymnasts to win gold and silver in the individual all-around, after Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson in 2008.
2017: Hiatus
After the 2016 Rio Games, Biles co-wrote an autobiography with journalist Michelle Burford, Courage to Soar: A Body in Motion, A Life in Balance, which reads: “I want people to reach for their dreams and there are so many people who have inspired me with their love and encouragement along the way and I want to pass on that inspiration to readers.” The book reached number one on the New York Times best sellers Young Adult list the week of January 8, 2017 and was turned into a Lifetime biopic.
Biles competed on season 24 of Dancing with the Stars, attempting to replicate her Rio teammate Laurie Hernandez’s win in season 23. Paired with professional dancer Sasha Farber, she was favored to win but was eliminated on May 15, 2017, one week before the finals, finishing in fourth place.
In August, during the 2017 P&G National Championships, Biles said that she had returned to the gym to start conditioning. Her longtime coach, Aimee Boorman, had moved to Florida with her family; in October Biles hired coach Laurent Landi, who had coached her Olympic teammate Madison Kocian.
2018 World Championships
In late October, at the 2018 World Championships in Doha, Qatar, Biles went to an emergency room the night before the qualifying round because of stomach pains that turned out to be a kidney stone. After confirming that it was not appendicitis, she checked herself out of the hospital. The next day, she qualified to the all-around, vault, balance beam and floor exercise finals in first place, and to the uneven bars final in second place behind Nina Derwael of Belgium. After successfully performing the vault she premiered at the selection camp, it
was named the Biles in the Code of Points, and given a difficulty value of 6.4 (for the 2017–2020 Code of Points), which was tied with the Produnova for the most difficult women’s vault ever competed. The US also qualified for the team final in first place. During the team final, Biles competed on all four events, recording the highest score of any competitor on vault, uneven bars, and floor exercise. The U.S. team won the gold medal with a score of 171.629, 8.766 points ahead of second-place Russia, beating previous margin of victory records set in the open-ended code of points era at the 2014 World Championships (6.693) and 2016 Rio Olympics (8.209).
2019
In early March, Biles competed at the Stuttgart World Cup, her first World Cup appearance not on American soil. She finished in first place, 3.668 points ahead of second-place Ana Padurariu of Canada. In July, Biles competed at the 2019 GK US Classic. During podium training, she performed a triple-twisting double-tucked salto backwards (upgraded from a Silivas), but did not perform it during the competition. Biles
Biles won the all-around, 2.1 points ahead of second-place finisher Riley McCusker. Individually, she placed fifth on bars behind Morgan Hurd, Sunisa Lee, Grace McCallum and McCusker, third on beam behind Kara Eaker and McCusker, and first on floor exercise. She also had the highest single vault score, ahead of Jade Carey and MyKayla Skinner.
2023 World Championships
At the World Championships, Biles qualified in first place in the all-around final with a score of 58.932, nearly two points ahead of teammate Shilese Jones. She also qualified in first place to every event final except for the uneven bars, where she placed fifth, earning a spot in that final. This made her the only gymnast to qualify for all individual event finals at these World Championships.
In the team competition, Biles hit her routines on every event, contributing scores of 14.800, 14.466, 14.300, and 15.166 on vault, uneven bars, balance beam, and floor exercise, respectively, to help the US to an unprecedented seventh consecutive team gold medal.
In the all-around competition, Biles hit all her routines, except for a small stumble during her choreography on floor exercise. She received the highest scores of the day on vault, balance beam, and floor exercise, and earned her sixth world all-around gold medal with an overall score of 58.399, ahead of Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade and her teammate Jones. With this victory, Simone Biles surpassed Vitaly Scherbo as the most successful gymnast of all time at the Olympics and World Championships. She also became the only gymnast besides Kōhei Uchimura to win the all-around title six times.
Personal life
Biles was in a relationship with fellow gymnast Stacey Ervin Jr. from August 2017 to March 2020.
She began dating professional American football player Jonathan Owens in August 2020. They met through the dating app Raya. Biles announced her engagement to Owens on February 15, 2022, and they were married on April 22, 2023.
In September 2017, Biles spoke about having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) after her medical records were leaked online, revealing that she had been taking Ritalin (methylphenidate) to treat the condition during the Olympics. Having been diagnosed as a child, she had previously disclosed her condition to the World Anti-Doping Agency and obtained a medical exemption, allowing her to take the medication during competition. Biles said that ADHD is “nothing to be ashamed of and nothing that I’m afraid to let people know.”
Biles underwent a breast augmentation in June 2025 and has openly discussed details of the procedure. She has also disclosed receiving other cosmetic plastic surgery procedures, including a lower blepharoplasty and earlobe surgery
Filmography
Documentary
| Year | Title | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Simone Biles Rising | 2 episodes | [266][267] |
| Simone Biles Rising: Part Two | [268] |
See also
- List of top female medalists at major artistic gymnastics events
- Final Five – the gold medal-winning team at the 2016 Summer Olympics
- MeToo movement
- List of Olympic female artistic gymnasts for the United States
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