Simone Biles ~ A Champions Return By: Jennifer Kate

Well, guys, I'm back with another blog, and again I will switch it up with the topic. Today I will be talking about the return of Simone Biles to the gymnastics Competition world after two years.

Before we get into Simone Biles' return to gymnastics, let's talk about her early life and teach you a little about her. Biles was born on March 14, 1997, in Columbus, Ohio. Her birth mother could not care for her and her three siblings, Adria, Ashley, and Tevin. All four of them went in and out of foster care. Biles' biological grandfather Ron Biles and his second wife, Nellie Cayetano Biles, began temporarily caring for Shanon's children. After learning that his grandchildren had been in foster care in 2003, the couple officially adopted Simone and her younger sister Adria. Biles verbally committed to UCLA on August 4, 2014. She planned to defer enrollment until after the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio De Janeiro; in November 2014, she signed her National Letter Of Intent with UCLA. On July 29, 2015, she announced that she would turn professional and forfeit her NCAA eligibility to compete for UCLA.

Let's talk about her life as a gymnast and her road to the Olympics. Biles first tried gymnastics when she was six during a daycare field trip. The instructors suggested she continue with gymnastics. Simone soon enrolled in an optional training program at Bannon's gymnastics. She began training with coach Aimee Boorman at age 8. Biles started her elite career at age 14 on July 1, 2011, at the 2011 American Classic in Houston. She placed third all around, first on vault and balance beam, fourth on floor exercise, and eighth on uneven bars. Later that month, Biles competed at the 2011 U.S. Classic in Chicago, where she placed 20th all around, fifth on balance beam and floor exercise. On July 25, 2015, she competed in the U.S. Classic and finished first in the all-around ahead of the 2012 Olympic all-around champion Gabby Douglas. In April 2016, Biles began her season at the Pacific Rim Championships, where she won the all-around title and had the highest score on vault, floor exercise, and balance beam. Biles did not compete in the event finals. On June 4, Biles competed at the Secret U.S. Classic in two events only, the uneven bars and beam. In the following weeks in the 2016 U.S. at National Championships, Biles won the all-around title by a margin of 3.9 points over Aly Raisman. Biles won the gold medal in vault and floor exercise. Simone also won the gold medal on balance beam and placed fourth on uneven bars. On July 10, Biles was named to the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics team.

In September 2016, Biles' medical information was released, and she was accused of doping to enhance her performance by the Russian Media. Following the Russian cyber espionage group Fancy Bears' hack into the World Anti-Doping Agency. Simone then disclosed on Twitter that she has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, also known as ADHD, and she was permitted to take medication for it, having applied for and received a therapeutic use exemption. She was applauded for opening up about ADHD.

Biles appeared in a commercial for Tide called "the evolution of power" before the 2016 Summer Olympics. On August 7, Biles competed in the Women's qualification at the 2016 Summer Olympics, helping the U.S. team qualify for first place in the team final. Biles qualified as the top gymnast in four of the five individual finals. On August 9, Biles won her first Olympic gold medal in the gymnastics team event—the only gymnast for Team USA to compete in all four finals. Biles won the gold medal in the individual all-around on August 11. With four Olympic medals, Biles set an American record for most gold medals in women's gymnastics at a single game.

Simone Biles and her teammate Gabby Douglas are the only American female gymnasts to win both the individual all-around gold and team gold at the same olympiad. Gabby Douglas won both at the 2012 London Games. Team USA chose Biles to be the flag bearer in the closing ceremonies becoming the first American female gymnast to receive this honor. She did not compete in 2017.

Simone Biles competed on season 24 of Dancing With The Stars. She finished in fourth place. During the 2017 P&G National Championships in August, she said she had returned to the gym to start conditioning. Biles was added to the National Team on March 1, 2018, after the athlete selection committee viewed recent videos of her performances. Her first competition of the year was the U.S. Classic in July 2018, where she won the all-around title. Biles also won the gold medal on floor and balance beam and recorded the highest single vault score. In August, Biles competed at the 2018 National Championships; she placed first in every event over the two days of competition. She was named to her seventh national team and was invited to the October selection camp for the 2018 world championships. In late October, at the 2018 World Championships in Doja, Qatar, Biles went to the emergency room the night before the qualifying round because of stomach pains that turned out to be kidney stones. After confirming that it was not appendicitis, she checked out of the hospital. The next day she qualified for the all-around, vault, balance beam, and floor exercise finals in first place and for the uneven bars in second place. In the all-around finals, Biles won the gold medal. In the final event, she won the gold medal in vault, her first-ever world vault title. This marked her thirteenth World Gold Medal, meaning she had won the most Gymnastics World Championships titles of any gender. By winning a medal on uneven bars, Biles became the first American and tenth female gymnast from any country to have won a world championship medal in every event. She then won the Gold medal in the floor exercise. She became the first U.S. and non-Soviet gymnast to win a medal in every event at a world championship. In August 2019, Biles competed at the 2019 U.S. National Gymnastics Championships. She placed first in the All-Around. She became the first woman to complete a triple-twisting double somersault on floor exercise. She also became the first gymnast to complete a double-twisting somersault dismount of the balance beam. In September, Biles competed in the U.S. World Championships trials, placing first in the All-Around.

In February 2020, it was announced that Simone Biles was chosen to represent the United States at the Tokyo World Cup on April 4. However, USA Gymnastics announced that she would not attend in March due to concerns about the ongoing covid 19 pandemic. The following day the Japanese Gymnastics Association announced they had canceled the events for the 2020 Olympic Games, which were postponed to 2021. On July 28, 2021, Biles withdrew from the finals of the individual all-around competition. Following further medical evaluation on July 30, she withdrew from the Vault and Uneven Bars finals. On July 31, she withdrew from the floor finals. She later confirmed on August 2 that she would compete in the beam finals.

In late June 2023, it was announced that Simone Biles would return to competition at the 2023 U.S. Classic, held on August 5. She competed in all four events.

That wraps it up for this blog. Thank you so much for reading i hope you enjoyed reading and learned something new. I'll see you guys in the next blog, which is coming soon.