Simone Arianne Biles (born March 14, 1997) is considered to be one of the greatest gymnasts of all time. A Wikipedia search will show you how many medals she has earned, and how many records she has broken. She is extraordinarily talented and dedicated to her sport. Her 2018 routine on vault and her 2019 routine on floor exercise are the most difficult ever performed in women’s artistic gymnastics. The four moves named after Biles are the most difficult elements on vault, balance beam, and floor exercise.
Biles has a very active and influential social media presence and she has used her voice to influence how her sport is run. Here is a link to a really good piece about her influence on gymnastics culture. I don’t think her importance can be exaggerated:
On January 18, 2018, Biles released a statement on Twitter confirming that she was one of the scores of women whom former USA Gymnastics physician Larry Nassar had sexually assaulted. She also called out USA Gymnastics for allowing the abuse to occur, and for subsequently covering it up. USA gymnastics had been for 15 years an authoritarian system run by an abusive trainer called Martha Karolyi. The young women were isolated and controlled, they were broken like horses, so that they would be obedient and completely dedicated to building their gymnastics skills. However, Simone’s coach, Aimee Boorman, took a different path and nurtured Simone as a human, not a gymnastics machine, and encouraged her autonomy. Biles has obviously thrived under this “new” approach. Simone still had to train at the Karolyi camp, but because she was so talented, she had some leverage, and Simone’s parents and coach sought to protect her. Simone’s story is all about pushing the boundaries of the U.S. gymnastics machine, leaping over obstacles, performing at the frontier of excellence, and setting boundaries to protect her mental health.
In the 2020 Olympic games (held in 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic) Biles withdrew from most of her events, citing mental health concerns. Adapted from Wikipedia: Biles explained that she withdrew primarily due to experiencing “the twisties”, a psychological phenomenon causing a gymnast to lose air awareness while performing twisting elements. Biles made the decision to withdraw after the first rotation of the team final because she felt that she had “simply got so lost [her] safety was at risk as well as a team medal.” Some commentators criticized Biles, accusing her of being a “quitter” or selfishly depriving another athlete of the chance to compete. She was also slandered in the Russian state-owned media. Multiple gymnasts defended Biles’s decision and relayed their own stories of struggling with the twisties. Biles’s decision to prioritize her mental health was generally widely praised and credited with starting a wider conversation about the role of mental health in sports. This discussion was launched earlier in the year by Naomi Osaka, the champion tennis player, when she refused to speak with the press to protect her mental health. Biles showcased that the new U.S. approach to the Olympics is focused on athletes’ well-being rather than only on winning.
Here is an interview with Biles speaking about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-4eJ2TZytY
A few weeks after the Olympics, Biles and other gymnasts testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee about Nassar’s abuse of American gymnasts, and how the USA Gymnastics organization—and the FBI—did not protect the athletes from abuse and deliberately failed to address reports of abuse. The gymnasts were clearly angry and in pain during this testimony, and the event shed new light on the stress Biles must have been suffering at the Olympics, so soon before thishearing.
Here is a quote from her testimony:
“Nelson Mandela once said, “there can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.” It is the power of that statement that compels and empowers me to be here in front of you today. I do not want another young gymnast, Olympic athlete, or any individual to experience the horror that I and hundreds of others have endured before, during, and continuing to this day in the wake of the Larry Nassar abuse. To be clear, I blame Larry Nassar, and I also blame an entire system that enabled and perpetuated his abuse.”
Here is a link to the transcript of Biles’s testimony on 9/15/2021:
https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Biles%20Testimony1.pdf
Early life
Biles was born on March 14, 1997, in Columbus, Ohio, the third of four siblings. Her parents were unable to care for Simone or her three siblings. All four went in and out of foster care. In 2000, Biles’ maternal grandfather, Ron Biles, and his second wife, Nellie Cayetano Biles, began temporarily caring for the children in the north Houston suburb of Spring, Texas, after learning that his grandchildren had been in foster care. In 2003, the couple officially adopted Simone and her younger sister Adria. Ron’s sister adopted the two oldest children. Simone started doing gymnastics when she was six and started training with coach Boorman at age eight.
This print was published in August 2021.
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