What it’s like to watch Simone Biles make history with her biggest fan — my 7-year-old daughter
Simone Biles ends her floor routine as the rest of the team cheer behind her during the women’s artistic gymnastics team finals round at the 2024 Summer Olympics, July 30, in Paris, France. (Natacha Pisarenko/AP)More
Backflips off the bed. Front tucks onto the couch. Handsprings in the hallway. My 7-year-old daughter’s life has been thoroughly overtaken by gymnastics and her hero, Simone Biles.
“I want to be just like her and go to the Olympics when I grow up,” she told me Monday, her hands emulating Biles’s gestures. “She does cool flips and dance moves. But she works hard.”
With Biles, now the most decorated U.S. Olympic gymnast, clinching a gold medal Tuesday in Paris in the women’s team final, her performances this week have been, by far, the most important ones to watch in our household. Her every move has a profound impact on my daughter’s own journey into the sport, as if she might be one of her coaches. As I watch her fingers slide back and forth on her iPad to get the slow-mo of Biles executing moves that have upended the norms of women’s gymnastics on a global scale, many named after her, I am in awe of her commitment to be like Biles, who was introduced to gymnastics at the age of 6
But on Sunday, when Biles injured her left calf muscle while warming up for a floor exercise routine, I winced along with most of America, fearful that her historic run might be over in an instant. My daughter, however, was much calmer.
“I love hard days,” she said, having little doubt that Biles would go on to notch the day’s highest scores. I’d gotten used to such confidence, having watched my daughter cry through warm-ups on the vault, her “worst event,” only to go on to win gold in regional and national competitions.
Her confidence does still give me some pause, however, if only because it developed so fast.
Three years ago, I first realized that my daughter had potential as a gymnast. After spending most of her ballet classes doing cartwheels, we traded in her tutu for a gymnastic leotard, and during her first formal class, the coach asked me if she’d be interested in moving up to a more advanced level. Before I knew it, we’d joined a gymnastics club in Atlanta and I was promptly informed by the coach that her skills were “exceptional.”
Soon, my friends had a nickname for her, “Baby Biles,” and she ended her first season winning first place in vault and floor exercise at a national competition.
She now calls gymnastics her “gift,” and I have to keep reminding myself that she’s just 7. The truth is I’ve been nervous about my child’s physical abilities since she climbed out of her crib at 9 months. At the age of 2, she jumped off a bed to try to land in an open drawer, hitting her head on a metal knob and requiring three stitches. At 3, a scared teacher had to explain to me how she jumped out of her playpen and broke her elbow, an injury that required surgery.
The work ethic required to get good at a gravity-defying sport is no small thing — for both the young athlete and their parents. There are the daily practices, the drives to and from the gym, the daily emails from her gymnastics club, the travel to meets across the country.
The financial costs involved have been significant enough to make me reconsider whether it’s worth it. There are endless fees: monthly tuition, thousands to cover the costs incurred at meets, organizational dues, coaches salaries and more. In just one year of competing, we’ve dipped into our savings more times than I care to admit.
Our whole family — including our daughter’s two siblings — has made sacrifices, including fewer shared meals. When my daughter gets home from a three-and-a-half-hour practice at 8:30 p.m., she heads straight to the shower then to bed.
As a mother, it’s especially hard. I can’t interrupt practice to kiss her bloody calluses because she’s now a competitive athlete who is being trained to endure that pain. I’m filled with anxiety when I think that my little baby could one day leave me to live in another state to train with a renowned coach or at a famous gym, as is so common for top gymnastic prospects. Normal educational routines are already disrupted because of the demands of practice, and her new coach has mentioned bringing in a tutor to maximize the time that she can spend in the gym.
When the demands of training grew, Simone Biles was homeschooled during her high school years, as I learned while assisting my daughter on her Black history project in first grade. The poster she made that accompanied her report read, “Simone Biles, the greatest gymnast of all time.” We also learned that Biles was diagnosed at an early age with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and used gymnastics as a way to help steady her.
“I get really distracted easily, but gymnastics helps me focus,” my daughter told me when I asked her about the similar attention challenges she and Biles may face. “Whenever I do my dance-throughs or my tumbling, my mind is thinking of how tight I should be. I also have to listen to my coaches. But when I don’t go to gymnastics, I’m all over the place.”
It’s statements like that that help me allay my own fears, but it’s also seeing the pride she has for the 30-plus medals that are displayed on the walls of her room, and the smile on her face when I pick her up from practice.
So, as we watched Simone Biles’s performances this week, we viewed them not just as fans, but as fellow competitors, and maybe someday, fellow Olympians.
Yang Wang of Slovakia in action in men’s singles table tennis against Chuqin Wang of China on July 28. (Paul Childs/Reuters)
The opening weekend of the 2024 Paris Olympics is in the books, and the Games are now in full swing. United States Olympic legends such as swimmer Katie Ledecky — who won bronze in the 400m Freestyle — and gymnast Simone Biles have already competed and are slated to continue their respective chases for more gold medals.
Biles, who suffered from the “Twisties” — a condition that interrupts the mind-body connection for a gymnast while in the air — in 2021, also experienced a calf injury in the early stages of the 2024 Olympics. However, she is still expected to be in the lineup for all four events in the team final portion for the United States on Tuesday night.
Over 200 countries are represented at this year’s Olympics, and more than 1,000 medals are up for grabs. As of Monday afternoon, Japan is in the gold lead with six gold medals, and the Republic of Korea and the People’s Republic of China are in the second with five gold medals, while France and Australia are rounding out the top five. The U.S., which has historically finished the Olympics with the most total medals, is currently in sixth place when it comes to gold medals, but is at the top of the leaderboard for overall medals with 17 so far, half of which are silvers.
Competitions for Olympic sports, like surfing and skateboarding, are also underway. So far, Americans Jagger Eaton and Nyjah Huston have taken home the silver and bronze medals in men’s street skateboarding, respectively, while Japan’s Yuto Horigome won gold in the event.
The Olympic Games will run for the next two weeks and finish on Aug. 11. The next Summer Olympics will take place in 2028 in Los Angeles, marking the third time the city will play host to the Games.
Brazil’s Filipe Toledo exits the barrel during the 2024 Olympic Games, in Teahupo’o, on the French Polynesian Island of Tahiti. (Jerome Brouillet/AFP via Getty Images)
Simone Biles of United States in action on the balance beam during the women’s qualification round on July 28. (Hannah Mckay/Reuters)
Canada’s Stephen Timothy Maar serving during the men’s preliminary round volleyball match between Slovenia and Canada. (Sebastien Berda/AFP via Getty Images)More
Jiayu Xu of China in action during the men’s 100m backstroke heats. (Evgenia Novozhenina/Reuters)
Trinity Rodman of United States in action with Felicitas Rauch of Germany a soccer match in Marseille. (Luisa Gonzalez/Reuters)
Sailing athletes in action during the men’s skiff competition in Marseille. (Andrew Boyers/Reuters)
Konstantin Kharkov of Croatia in action against Montenegro during a men’s water polo round in St. Denis. (Stefan Wermuth/Reuters)
An overview shows Algeria’s Dounia Khelif in red fighting against Serbia’s Natalia Shadrina in the women’s 60kg preliminaries round of 16 boxing match at the North Paris Arena, in Villepinte, on July 29. (Pool via AFP via Getty Images)More
Ruoteng Xiao of China in action on the vault during the artistic gymnastics men’s qualification round in Paris. (Mike Blake/Reuters)
Summer McIntosh of Canada during the Women’s 400m individual medley swimming heats on July 29. (Marko Djurica/Reuters)
Alexa Moreno of Mexico falls from the balance beam during the artistic gymnastics women’s qualification round. (Amanda Perobelli/Reuters)
Mohamed Elsayed of Egypt celebrates after winning his bronze medal bout against Tibor Ferenc Andrasfi of Hungary for fencing: men’s epee individual. (Maye-E Wong/Reuters)More
Kimberley Woods of Britain after competing in women’s kayak single finals during the canoe slalom in Vaires-sur-Marne. (Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP)
Manika Batra of India in action during her round of 64 women’s singles table tennis match against Anna Hursey of Britain. (Stephanie Lecocq/Reuters)
Mollie O’Callaghan, right, of Australia, and Barbora Seemanova, of the Czech Republic, compete in the women’s 200-meter freestyle in Nanterre, France. (David J. Phillip/AP)More
Lilia Cosman, of Romania, competes on the balance beam during a women’s artistic gymnastics qualification round. (Abbie Parr/AP)
Simone Biles, of United States, performs on the vault during a women’s artistic gymnastics qualification round. (Morry Gash/AP)
Coco Gauff of United States celebrates her victory over Ajla Tomljanovic of Australia during the women’s singles tennis competition. (Manu Fernandez/AP)
U.S. fencer Lee Kiefer competes with Italy’s Alice Volpi, top, in the women’s individual foil semifinal match. (Christophe Ena/AP)
Kauli Vaast, of France, leaps over a wave during the second round of the 2024 Summer Olympics surfing competition in Teahupo’o, Tahiti. (Gregory Bull/AP)
Andy Murray and Daniel Evans of Britain celebrate after defeating Kei Nishikori and Toro Daniel of Japan in the men’s doubles tennis competition. (Andy Wong/AP)
Austria’s Alexander Horst hits over the outstretched arms of Brazil’s Evandro Goncalves Oliveira Junior in a beach volleyball match. (Robert F. Bukaty/AP)
Hungarian fencer Liza Pusztai reacts at the end of the women’s individual sabre round of 32 competition against Italy’s Michela Battiston. (Andrew Medichini/AP)More
China’s Lian Junjie and Yang Hao compete in the men’s synchronized 10m platform diving final in Saint-Denis, France. (Lee Jin-man/AP)
Daniel Wiffen, of Ireland, competes during a heat in the men’s 800-meter freestyle. (Bernat Armangue/AP)
Guilherme Costa of Brazil ahead of the men’s 800m freestyle heat. (Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters)
