The announcers on the NBC broadcast of the US Gymnastic Championships on June 6th 2021, as Biles won a historic seventh National title, got it absolutely right when they said of Biles; "...being able to perform those skills...it's a challenge, it's a test. She is already so far above the rest of the competition field that she HAS to only compete against herself" And again when another announcer said "It is fascinating though because any athlete needs another athlete to push them and it seems like she doesn't. She just takes it to a new level. All the time." Simone Biles is a rockstar in the gymnastic community worldwide and has received recognition, praise, and celebrations of her hard work and accomplishments in a multitude of forms. A firecracker on the mat, vault, balance beam, and uneven bars; her energy has led to unbelievable feats in all mentioned areas and even a move named after her that she seems only able to carry out. Quite honestly impressive is an understatement for this magnificent and talented woman.
Her career began in 2011, at age 14, after placing 3rd all-around , first on vault and balance beam, 4th on floor exercise, and 8th on uneven bars at the American Classic in Houston Texas. From there it seems like her career skyrocketed, really taking off in 2013 when she placed in the AT&T American Cup as well as both U.S. and World competitions. At the AT&T American Cup. Biles was a silver medalist while at the US competition she accomplished gold in the all-around and silver for vault, uneven bars, balance beam, and floor exercise. She scored the championship for all-around and floor exercise, was a vault silver medalist, and got bronze for balance beam in the World championship. Thus, becoming the first African-American all-around world champion and remains undefeated in this area of gymnastics since 2013.
This slew of accomplishments only increased in 2014 as she was named USOC's Athlete of the month for October and became Women's Sports Foundation's Individual Sportswoman of the Year. She achieved success again at the World and US levels becoming the champion in team, all-around, balance beam, and floor exercise while winning silver in vault in the first. In the latter she claimed the championship in all-around, floor exercise, and vault while scoring the silver for balance beam. To top it all off, she became the first woman since Ludmilla Tourischeva in 1974, to win 4 gold medals at a single world championships. Biles came out of 2015 with USOC's Female Olympic Athlete of the Year as well as their Best of November Team USA Award, a champion of the AT&T American Cup as well as in the team, all-around, balance beam, and floor exercise at the World competition. With these wins, she became the first woman gymnast to win 3 consecutive world all-around titles.
2016 was her biggest year yet, tackling her first Olympics in Rio and coming out of it with the gold in vault, floor, individual and team all-around as well as the bronze in balance beam. This spectacularly athletic woman not only took gold in the all-around, but did so with a 2.1 margin, which is larger then all of the margins of victory from 1980-2012 combined. This is wild to me. I don't know much about gymnastics, but even I know this is an astounding feat. Her four Olympic gold medals tie Biles for the record of gold medals won by a female gymnast in a single Olympic games and her 5 medals in total tie her for the most medals by a U.S gymnast. She didn't just compete in the Olympics this year either. She went to the US competition, becoming the champion in all-around, vault, balance beam, and floor as well as taking team and all-around champion at the Pacific Rim Championships. More people started taking notice, this young superstar popped up everywhere after this. ESPN named her Woman of the Year, with titles that just kept on coming. She was recognized by Laureus as their World Sportswoman of the Year, United States Sports Academy Female Athlete of the Year, International Sports Press Association (AIPS) Female Athlete of the Year, Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year, and winner of USOC's Best of June Team USA Award.
Back at the US and World competitions in 2018, Biles was the champion in all-around, vault, and floor in both competitions. At the US level she also was the uneven bars and balance beam champion while at the World level she attained a silver on uneven bars and bronze in balance beam. ESPN named her as the Most Dominant Athlete of 2018 while also reprising her title of Laureus' Sportswoman of the Year and United States Sports Academy Female Athlete of the Year. Newly acquired wins included Houston Sports Athlete of the Year, Hickok Belt Award winner, and USOC's Best of August Team USA Award. She again won USOC's Best of August Team USA Award in 2019 as well as their October award for that same year. Biles took the United States Sports Academy's Athlete of the month for August, AP Female Athlete of the Year, Team USA's Female Olympic Athlete of the Year, and won the People's Choice Awards Game Changer Award. With her gold medals in team, all-around, vault, balance beam, and floor on the World stage in 2019 she became now held 19 World gold medals- the most ever in gymnastic history. Not just that, but this marked the first time a woman had won 5 all-around titles, 3 world balance beam titles, and 5 world floor exercise titles. She also succeeded in obtaining gold medals in the US all-around, vault, balance beam, and floor exercise as well.
Now, halfway through 2021 and with the Tokyo Olympics on the horizon, Biles isn't slowing down. As mentioned above, I know very little about gymnastics, but I within the past week I saw the NBC coverage of the nationals that showed all of her routines that night that she won her historic 7th national title and I had goosebumps. I couldn't believe the athleticism, strength, grace, and precision that Simone Biles showed. I knew I had to dive in and see more about what this woman had accomplished in her career and that I needed to highlight for others who may not know just the vast extent of her success. With this competition she also became a 6 time US vault champion and 5 time US balance beam and floor exercise champion.
Biles is included in TIME magazine's list of Most Influential People in the World and has a move named after her, which she is the only one able to pull off. You can see it in the video listed below during her floor exercise. She holds a total of 30 championship medals making her the most decorated American gymnast and the third most decorated gymnast in the world. If you haven't, please take some time to watch her incredible performances in any of the events mentioned throughout this post and there will be a link to that NBC broadcast that I've referred to. I'm now definitely looking forward to catching the Olympics in July and seeing where else this year can take her!
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