Early career

Simone Biles became interested in gymnastics at age six during a field trip to Bannon Gymnastics. She began training there, remaining for eleven years under the direction of her coach, Aimee Boorman.

Biles won the all-around title at her first world gymnastics championships in 2013, making her the first African American woman to do so. At the 2014 world championships, Biles won four gold medals. In 2015, she claimed her third consecutive U.S. all-around title.

Gold medallist

At the 2015 world championships, Biles won the all-around title as well as gold medals in balance beam, floor exercise, and the women’s team competition. This brought her career total to fourteen world championship medals; the most ever earned by a U.S. gymnast. Her ten world championship gold medals were the most won by a female gymnast in the sport’s history.

At the 2016 Olympics in Rio, Biles led the U.S. to gold in the team event, and then won the individual all-around. She also won the floor exercise and vault events, becoming the fifth female gymnast to claim four gold medals at a single Olympics. At the 2018 U.S. national championships, she won her fifth all-around title as well as each of the four apparatus events. Biles was the first female in nearly twenty five years to claim all five golds at the U.S. nationals.