Simone Biles (born March 14, 1997, Columbus, Ohio, U.S.) is one of the greatest gymnasts in the history of the sport, known for her consistency and the complexity of her performances. Throughout her career, she has set a number of records.
Simone Biles (born March 14, 1997, Columbus, Ohio, U.S.) is one of the greatest gymnasts in the history of the sport, known for her consistency and the complexity of her performances. Throughout her career, she has set a number of records. Notably, at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Biles became the first female U.S. gymnast to win four gold medals at a single Games, and she was the first gymnast to win six world all-around titles (2013–15, 2018–19, 2023). She has also won an unprecedented 30 world championship medals, of which 23 are gold.
Biles grew up in Spring, Texas, in the Houston metropolitan area, after she and her sister Adria were adopted by their grandparents, Ronald and Nellie Biles. Simone became interested in gymnastics at age six during a day-care field trip to Bannon’s Gymnastix, and she remained there for 11 years under the direction of her coach, Aimee Boorman. Biles won a gold in floor exercise and a bronze in vault at the Women’s Junior Olympic National Championships in 2010 before breaking into the elite level of competition in 2011. Less than two years later she dominated the sport. What set Biles apart was her consistency, her exuberant personality, and the high degree of difficulty she incorporated into her routines in all four events—vault, uneven bars, balance beam, and floor exercise.
In 2013, her first year as a senior competitor, the 4-foot 8-inch (1.4-meter) Biles won the all-around title at her first world gymnastics championships, becoming the first African American woman to claim the title. She also prevailed in the floor exercise, earned the silver medal in vault, and took home the bronze medal in balance beam. At the 2014 world championships, Biles captured four gold medals: in the women’s team competition and the individual all-around, balance beam, and floor exercise events. She also took the silver medal in vault.
Biles claimed her third consecutive U.S. all-around title in 2015, becoming the first woman to accomplish that feat since Kim Zmeskal in 1992. At the 2015 world championships, she completed her hat trick of all-around titles. She also secured the balance beam and floor exercise titles, the bronze medal in vault, and a share of the team title. Those wins brought her career total to 14 world championship medals, the most ever earned by a U.S. gymnast, male or female. In addition, her 10 world championship gold medals were the most won by a female gymnast in the sport’s history. Biles would go on to add to those totals.
Simone Biles Simone Biles competing on the balance beam in the women’s team event at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.(more)
Biles, who was too young to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics, was a favorite entering the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro. She lived up to expectations, first leading the United States to gold in the team event and then winning the individual all-around. She also won the floor and vault events, becoming the fifth female gymnast to claim four gold medals at a single Olympics. Biles also captured a bronze in the balance beam to bring her medal total to five.
Biles subsequently took a break from gymnastics, and in 2018 she announced that she had been a victim of Larry Nassar, a former doctor for the U.S. national gymnastics team who was convicted of sexually abusing numerous athletes. That year Biles returned to competition. At the 2018 U.S. national championships, she became the first female gymnast in nearly 25 years to win all five events, including a record-setting fifth all-around title. Biles became the most-decorated female gymnast in world championships history when she won four golds (including another all-around title), one silver, and one bronze at the 2018 championships to bring her career total at that competition to 20 medals.
Biles continued to make history in 2019. At that year’s world championship she became the first gymnast in more than six decades to win five gold medals, including one in the all-around event. She also debuted a new, incredibly difficult move on the balance beam—a double twisting, double backflip dismount—which she successfully executed. It was later named the Biles, becoming one of several moves that she introduced in the sport. In addition, she bypassed Vitaly Scherbo of Belarus to become the gymnast with the most world championship medals (25). Also in 2019 she won five medals at the U.S. national championships, four of which were gold.
The history of the Olympics: From ancient Greece to nowThe first Olympic Games consisted of a singular event: a footrace.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, no major events were held in 2020. The break, however, had little effect on Biles. At the 2021 U.S. Classic she became the first female gymnast to land the sport’s most difficult vault, the Yurchenko double pike (also known as the Biles II), during a competition. Later that year she competed at the U.S. national championships, where she captured her seventh all-around title. She also won three other gold medals and one bronze.
A balancing actSimone Biles performing on the balance beam at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (delayed until 2021). She won a bronze medal in the event.(more)
There were high expectations for Biles as she entered the 2020 Tokyo Games, which were delayed until 2021. However, she withdrew from most events due to “the twisties,” a mental block in which gymnasts lose their spatial orientation during aerial moves. Her decision not to compete sparked discussions about the pressure placed on athletes and their mental health concerns. Biles did return for the final event, the balance beam, and she won a bronze medal.
An unparalleled gymnastSimone Biles competing on the uneven bars during qualifications for the 2023 world championship, Antwerp.(more)
Biles subsequently took a break from gymnastics, but she returned in 2023 and quickly reasserted herself as a dominating force in gymnastics. That year she competed at the U.S. national championships, where she won a record-setting eighth all-around title. She also captured gold medals in the balance beam and floor exercise and claimed a silver in the vault. These wins raised her total number of U.S. titles to an unprecedented 27. Later in 2023 Biles competed at the world championships, where she continued to add to her medal count, bringing her total to 30. She claimed gold medals in four events: team, all-around, floor exercise, and balance beam. In addition, she won a silver in the vault.
In the lead-up to the 2024 Olympics in Paris, Biles continued to dominate the sport. At that year’s U.S. national championships, she captured an unprecedented ninth all-around title. In addition, she won all four individual events: balance beam, vault, floor exercise, and uneven bars. As the event’s top finisher, Biles qualified for the Olympic trials, and she later made the team.
At the Paris Games, Biles demonstrated why many consider her the greatest gymnast in the history of the sport. Backed by her stellar performance, the United States won the gold medal in the team event. She then recaptured the individual all-around gold medal. On the vault, Biles performed the Yurchenko double pike and won her third gold of the Paris Games. She finished in fifth place on the balance beam after falling during her routine. On the floor exercise, considered her signature event, the usually flawless Biles stepped out of bounds twice, and she earned the silver medal.
A balancing act Simone Biles performing on the balance beam at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (delayed until 2021). She won a bronze medal in the event.(more)
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gymnastics, the performance of systematic exercises—often with the use of rings, bars, and other apparatus—either as a competitive sport or to improve strength, agility, coordination, and physical conditioning. Artistic gymnastics is routinely among the most-watched sports in Olympic competition.
The term gymnastics, derived from a Greek word meaning “to exercise naked,” applied in ancient Greece to all exercises practiced in the gymnasium, the place where male athletes did indeed exercise unclothed. Many of these exercises came to be included in the ancient Olympic Games, until the abandonment of the Games in 393 ce. Some of the competitions grouped under this ancient definition of gymnastics later became separate sports, such as athletics (track and field), wrestling, and boxing.
Of the modern events currently considered to be gymnastics, only tumbling and a primitive form of vaulting were known in the ancient world. For instance, Egyptian hieroglyphs show variations of backbends and other stunts being performed with a partner, while a well-known fresco from Crete at the palace at Knossos shows a leaper performing what is either a cartwheel or handspring over a charging bull. Tumbling was an art form in ancient China as well. Stone engravings found in Shandong province that date to the Han period (206 bce–220 ce) portray acrobatics being performed.
Tumbling continued in the Middle Ages in Europe, where it was practiced by traveling troupes of thespians, dancers, acrobats, and jugglers. The activity was first described in the West in a book published in the 15th century by Archange Tuccaro, Trois dialogues du Sr. Archange Tuccaro (the book contains three essays on jumping and tumbling). Tumbling seems to be an activity that evolved in various forms in many cultures with little cross-cultural influence. For instance, the hoop-diving illustrated in Tuccaro’s book looks very similar to a type of tumbling seen in ancient China. Tumbling and acrobatics of all kinds were eventually incorporated into the circus, and it was circus acrobats who first used primitive trampolines.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s novel Émile; ou, de l’éducation (1762; Emile; or, On Education) is credited by historians as the catalyst of educational reform in Europe that combined both the physical and cognitive training of children. Rousseau’s work inspired educational reformers in Germany, who opened schools known as Philanthropinum in the late 1700s that featured a wide variety of outdoor activities, including gymnastics; children from all economic strata were accepted. The “grandfather” of modern gymnastics, Johann Christoph Friedrich Guts Muths (1759–1839), was a leading teacher at the Philanthropinist school in Schnepfenthal. In his seminal work, Gymnastik für die Jugend (1793; Gymnastics for Youth), Guts Muths envisioned two main divisions of gymnastics: natural gymnastics and artificial gymnastics. These two divisions may be thought of as utilitarian and nonutilitarian gymnastics. The former disciplines emphasize the health of the body, similar to the exercises developed in Sweden and Denmark under Per Henrik Ling (1776–1839) and Neils Bukh (1880–1950), respectively. Modern aerobics also falls into this category, and a competitive form, now called aerobic gymnastics, was added to the disciplines sponsored by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) in 1996. In contrast, nonutilitarian gymnastics is characterized by modern artistic gymnastics, the maneuvers of which are geared to beauty and not function. For example, in feudal Europe young men were taught to mount and dismount a horse, useful knowledge during a time when armies rode. Modern “horse” work in artistic gymnastics has evolved to a point where there is no practical connection between gymnastic maneuvers on a horse and horsemanship. Only the language of riding remains, with the terms mount and dismount still being used in gymnastics.
The prime developer of natural gymnastics was Per Henrik Ling. In 1813 Ling founded a teacher-training center, the Royal Gymnastics Central Institute, in Stockholm. Ling devised and taught a system of gymnastic exercises designed to produce medical benefits for the athlete. Calisthenics are attributed to him, including free calisthenics—that is, exercises without the use of hand apparatus such as clubs, wands, and dumbbells. Although Ling did not promote competition, free calisthenics later evolved into the artistic gymnastics discipline now known as floor exercise.
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The acknowledged “father” of gymnastics, Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, founder of the turnverein (gymnastics club) movement, is credited with the rapid spread of gymnastics throughout the world. Gymnastic competition can be traced to the outdoor playground (Turnplatz) Jahn opened in a field known as the Hasenheide (rabbit field) on the outskirts of Berlin. Ernst Eiselen, Jahn’s assistant and coauthor of Die Deutsche Turnkunst (1816; The German Gymnastic Art), carefully noted and explained the various exercises developed on the playground. The pommel horse was used for leg-swinging exercises and for vaulting. Jahn invented the parallel bars to increase the upper-body strength of his students, and immense towers were erected to test their courage. Balance beams, horizontal bars, climbing ropes, and climbing poles were also found at the Turnplatz. Primitive pole vaulting was practiced along with other athletic games. The wide variety of challenging apparatus found on the playground attracted young men who were then, in addition, indoctrinated with Jahn’s dream of German unification and his ideas on the defense of the fatherland and ridding Prussia of French influence.
The Prussians and leaders from surrounding countries became wary of nationalist sentiments, and Jahn and his followers were viewed with suspicion after the defeat of Napoleon in 1815. About that time student organizations, such as the Burschenschaft (“Youth Branch”), were in favor of adopting a constitutional form of government, arming the citizenry, and instituting greater civil freedoms. In 1819, after the murder of the German playwright August von Kotzebue by a Burschenschaft gymnast, the Prussian king Frederick William III closed approximately 100 gymnastics fields and centers in Prussia. Other Germanic states followed suit. Jahn was arrested, jailed as a democratic demagogue, and placed under house arrest for the next five years. He was eventually acquitted but was admonished to relocate far from Berlin to a city or town with neither institutions of higher learning or gymnasia. He was awarded a yearly stipend and settled in Freyburg an der Unstrut. Three of his close followers, Karl Beck, Karl Follen, and Franz Lieber, fearing arrest, fled to North America, bringing gymnastics with them. The Turners (members of turnverein) remaining in Prussia went underground until the ban on gymnastics was lifted by King Frederick William IV in 1842.
The first German gymnastic festival (Turnfest) was held in Coburg in 1860. The festival attracted affiliated turnverein clubs and marked the beginning of international competition, as the growing family of Turners outside Germany were invited to participate. Americans had been introduced to gymnastics by followers of Jahn in the late 1820s, but not until 1848, when large numbers of Germans immigrated, did transplanted turnverein members organize clubs and establish a national union of Turner societies. (A similar movement, the Sokol, originated and spread in Bohemia and was also transported to the United States.) By 1861 American Turners and Turners from Germanic regions bordering Prussia attended the second Turnfest in Berlin. By the time of the first modern Olympics in Athens in 1896, eight Turnfests had taken place in Germany with the participation of a growing number of countries.
In 1881 the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) was founded to supervise international competition. The 1896 Olympic Games fostered interest in gymnastics, and the FIG World Championships in gymnastics were organized for men in 1903 and for women in 1934.
The 1896 Olympic Games marked the advent of true international, open competition in gymnastics. The Games featured typical German, or “heavy apparatus,” events and rope climbing. Gymnastics competitions were not standardized until the 1928 Olympics, when five of the six events presently held in Olympic gymnastics were contested—pommel horse, rings, vaulting, parallel bars, and horizontal bar, with both compulsory and optional routines required. Women first competed in the Olympics in 1928 in events similar to those of the men except for the addition of the balance beam. Floor exercise events were added in 1932.
