Simone Biles is hands down the greatest gymnast who ever lived in the history of the sport. She’s garnered six national titles and a record-breaking 25 World championship medals, around 19 of which are the top prize. Without a doubt, she’ll be able to add more to this impressive list during her next competitions. And she’s done all of this at the age of 22. Suffice it to say that she’s only just peaking and that there more great things we can expect from the young athlete.
While all the accolades are certainly nice to know about, we’ve gathered a few fun factoids about the athlete that makes her an even more interesting character.
Dominated Despite Suffering from Kidney Stones
In 2018, she led Team USA from one gold medal to another in the World Championships held in Qatar. It was obvious in those competitions that she was a dominant force in the sport. However, what most people probably don’t know is that she did so while suffering from a particularly painful kidney stone problem. She was even hospitalized before the competition because of it. When she had medical procedures done after the meet, she got the stone out and she christened it “The Doha Pearl”.
Struggled With Confidence on the Beam
When she couldn’t bring home the bacon on the balance beam at the 2016 Olympics, Simone struggled with a little bit of self-doubt. Even three after it, it still weighed heavily on her mind, she once confessed to USA Today Sports. But it looks like she’s found her groove on the beam back these days. Up to this day, she calls her relationship with the beam a “love-hate relationship”
She’s the Best and She Knows It
Most gymnastics fans can recognize Simone’s greatness. The amount of the championships under her name makes this fact inarguable. She knows this and she’s not afraid to agree.
She believes that it’s important for her to acknowledge her own greatness to inspire other women to do the same. “It’s important to teach our female youth that it’s OK to say, ‘Yes, I am good at this,’ and you don’t hold back,” she says in an interview. Men do it all the time, so why should women be seen in a negative light for doing the same? She’s a strong believer in not holding yourself back and being confident in your own skin.