Antwerp, October 1, 2023. First day of qualifying at the world championships. Simone Biles ran at the vault and threw a Yurchenko double pike, a vault no woman had ever landed in international competition. She landed it. It went into the books as the Biles II, the fifth skill in the sport named for her: two on floor, two on vault, one on beam.
Two years before that night, at the Tokyo Olympics, she could not trust her body to twist. And long before any of it, she was a little girl in foster care in Ohio.
Little mom
Biles was born on March 14, 1997, in Columbus, Ohio. Her mother, Shanon, struggled off and on with drugs and alcohol. One day a social worker called her grandfather, Ron Biles, in Texas to tell him that all four of Shanon's children were in foster care. He flew to Ohio and brought them back with him. In less than a year they were returned to their mother.
Not long after, Shanon's parental rights were terminated. Ron's older sister adopted the other two children. Ron and his wife, Nellie, took Simone and her younger sister, Adria, who was still in diapers. The girls came to stay for good in late 2000, and Ron and Nellie adopted them.
Simone ran the house and looked out for her sister. Nellie has been honest that the start was hard for her, because the girls had no connection to her yet and she had none to them.
"She thought she was a little mom in the house."
Nellie Biles, to the Associated Press, 2015
Through the divider
At six, Simone went on a daycare field trip to Bannon's Gymnastix in Texas. Through a divider, she could see the team gymnasts training. So she started copying them. A coach came over and asked if she had ever done it before. A letter went home to her family.
Aimee Boorman, a coach at that gym, became her coach. The skills with her name on them came later. A double layout with a half twist on floor, named after the 2013 world championships. A vault, named after the 2018 worlds. Then in 2019, two at once: a double twisting double back dismount on beam, and the triple-double on floor, at the time the highest rated skill on any apparatus.
Lost in the air
July 2021, the team final in Tokyo. The United States started on vault. Biles planned two and a half twists. She did one and a half and barely got her feet under her. She told her coach, Cecile Landi, that she had to stop, for her own safety and for the team's. The Americans finished with silver without her.
She had the twisties, a loss of the air awareness gymnasts need to twist safely. She pulled out of the all-around final, then the vault, bars and floor finals.
Here is the part people forget. On August 3 she came back for the beam final. She changed her dismount to a double pike, no twist. She scored 14.000 and won bronze. A double pike got her back on the podium in Tokyo. Two years later, a double pike vault put her name in the Code one more time.
"My problem was my body and my mind weren't in sync."
Simone Biles, Tokyo, August 2021
The comeback
She did not compete again for two years. On August 5, 2023, at the U.S. Classic outside Chicago, she came back. Two months later she was in Antwerp, landing the Yurchenko double pike.
Then Paris, 2024. Gold in the team final, the all-around and the vault, and silver on floor. That made 11 Olympic medals, seven of them gold, the most of any American gymnast. Add her 30 world championship medals, and she is the most decorated gymnast in history.
Not yet
She has not competed since Paris. In June 2026 she posted on Instagram that she had been through what she called one of the scariest experiences of her life. She did not describe the health problem. She said she was resting.
In September 2026, at 29, she told the Associated Press she has not decided about the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, when she would be 31. She is weighing starting a family with her husband, the NFL safety Jonathan Owens. She is also weighing what training could mean for her health as she nears 30.
Then she told a story. Recently, in the gym with her sister Adria, the same little sister she used to look after, she tried a double layout just for fun. It felt less frightening than she expected, she said, and that made the decision harder.
GAMECHANGER™"I wasn't as scared as I thought I was going to be."
Simone Biles, to the Associated Press, September 2026
Reporting draws on the Associated Press, Team USA, ABC News, CBS News, Gray News, the Academy of Achievement, Mahoning Matters and Wikipedia's documented record of her named elements.
Sources (11)
ABC7: Biles lands Yurchenko double pike at the world championships · TODAY (YouTube): Biles makes history landing Yurchenko double pike · CBS News: Simone Biles' gymnastics moves named after her · Associated Press via CBS Texas: Biles taking charge as Rio nears · Academy of Achievement: Simone Biles interview · Team USA: Biles leaves Tokyo on her own terms with beam bronze · Denver Gazette: Biles in Tokyo · Gray News via WDBJ7: Biles finishes Paris with four medals, three gold · Mahoning Matters: Simone Biles' Ohio roots · WSET: Biles gives update after scariest experience of her life · Associated Press via Click2Houston: Biles undecided about the 2028 Olympics