For the Tokyo Olympics this summer, For The Win is helping you get to know some of the star Olympians competing on the world’s biggest stage. Leading up to the Opening Ceremony, we’re highlighting 23 athletes in 23 days. Next up is Simone Biles.
It honestly feels as if we’ve learned so much about Simone Biles — arguably Team USA’s biggest Olympics superstar heading into Tokyo — since she exploded on the scene in 2013.
There are documentaries about her, magazine cover stories and a prodigious amount of social media posts from her.
So instead of highlighting some things you might not know, let’s focus on reminders of her unbelievable accomplishments and some of her all-time great highlights.
READ MORE FROM OUR TOKYO OLYMPICS 23 in 23 SERIES HERE.
1
The list of accomplishments is unreal
(Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
Let’s pick out some highlights:
- She’s won the United States all-around gymnastics title seven times, with titles every year since 2013 except in 2017 (she chose not to compete that year) and 2020 (there was no championships due to COVID-19).
- She has 19 gold medals from the world championships, along with three silvers and three bronzes. Those 19 golds are the most ever, and the 25 total medals are the most ever.
- In her first Olympics in Rio back in 2016, she amassed four golds (Team, All-Around, Vault and Floor Exercise) and a bronze in the Balance Beam. Those four golds tied for the most by a United States gymnast.
2
She was the first gymnast to pull off a double-double dismount on a beam in competition
That’s a double twist AND a double flip off a beam. MY GOODNESS. Here it was in 2019:
New record: First double-double dismount on beam in competition. Congratulations to @TeamUSA's remarkable @Simone_Biles 👏 pic.twitter.com/kiMXlkmjRP
— Guinness World Records (@GWR) August 14, 2019
3
She did the first triple-double in floor exercises
Three twists and a double back flip? Yeah. Wild.
How do you prep yourself to do a historic move like that one?
“I just fall back on training and try to do what I’ve done,” Biles told For The Win in 2019. “But the thought never really runs through my mind that, ‘Nobody’s ever done this. What am I going to do?’ Which is kind of bizarre! I feel like maybe I should be thinking about that, but I don’t because I’m just so focused.”
4
There are a bunch of her moves named for her
There are multiple moves known as “The Biles” — in the vault, balance beam and two in the floor exercise, the second of which is known as “the Biles II,” another unbelievable set of flips and twists during floor exercises.
She also became the first woman to pull off a Yurchenko double pike in May:
5
She's aiming at history
No woman has won consecutive Olympic all-around golds since 1968 (Vera Caslavska did it last). She’s the favorite to do it again, as are the Team USA women to grab the team gold for a third straight time.
What’s more: if everything goes her way, she could become the first female gymnast to win five golds and the first American woman to win a quintet of golds in a single Olympics. Swimming star Katie Ledecky could also do the same.
Gymnastics at the Tokyo Olympics begin July 24.
