World champion gymnast Simone Arianne Biles was born on March 14, 1997 in Columbus, Ohio. She and her younger sister, Adria, were adopted at a young age by their parents Ron and Nellie. She grew up near Houston in Spring, Texas with her parents and her siblings Adria, Ron II, and Adam. While she considers Columbus her hometown, she currently resides in Texas. From a young age, Biles was often found bouncing and jumping around, and at the age of six, Biles attended a school field trip to Bannon’s Gymnastix. It was on this trip that Biles was introduced to the sport of gymnastics. At Bannon’s, she began imitating the gymnasts’ movements; she came home and insisted her parents enroll her in a gymnastics class. [1]
Biles began training under coach Aimee Boorman at Bannon’s Gymnastix, and she stayed there for 11 years. In 2010, at the age of 13, Biles competed at the Women’s Junior Olympic National Championships, where she won a gold in floor exercise and a bronze in vault. The next year, she broke into the elite level of competition gymnastics, and by 2013, Biles began breaking records. She became the first Black woman to win the all-around title at the World Gymnastics Championships. It was her first year competing at the world championships and her first year as a senior level competitor. At the world championships the following year, Biles won four gold medals: in women’s team competition, individual all-around, balance beam, and floor exercise events. [2]
In 2015, Biles continued to break records. She won the all-around world champion title for the third year in a row, the first athlete to do so since Kim Zmeskal in 1992. Biles’s medal wins at the 2015 world championships brought her to a career total of 14 world championship medals, the most world championship medals ever earned by a U.S. gymnast, male or female. [3] This makes Biles the most decorated World Championship American gymnast. [4]
