145 Fun Facts About Simone Biles That Will Amaze You

Simone Biles flips higher, spins faster, and smiles bigger than almost anyone in sports.

This mega-list packs quick, family-friendly facts about her life, medals, epic skills, training, and lasting impact.

Whether you’re new to gymnastics or a superfan, get ready to learn something cool on every line.

Origins & early life

1. Simone Arianne Biles was born on March 14, 1997 in Columbus, Ohio.
2. She was raised in the Houston suburb of Spring, Texas.
3. She is 1.42 meters tall (about 4 feet 8 inches).
4. She began gymnastics at age 6 after a daycare field trip to a gym.
5. Her younger sister, Adria Biles, also trained in gymnastics.
6. In 2003 she and Adria were adopted by their grandparents, Nellie and Ronald Biles.
7. She trained at World Champions Centre, a gym founded by her family in Spring, Texas.
8. Aimee Boorman coached her through her first Olympics cycle.
9. In 2017 she began training with Laurent Landi and Cecile Canqueteau-Landi.
10. She switched to homeschooling during high school to allow more training hours.
11. She verbally committed to college gymnastics at UCLA before turning professional in 2015.
12. She graduated high school in 2015 while preparing for Rio 2016.
13. Her favorite event early in her career was floor exercise.
14. She first competed as a senior elite in 2013.
15. She became U.S. senior national all-around champion in 2013.
16. She won her first world all-around title in 2013 at age 16.
17. She has Belizean heritage through her mother and often visits Belize.
18. She was encouraged to try gymnastics after teachers noticed her natural flips and energy.

Record-breakers & wow numbers

19. She has won eight U.S. all-around titles, the most by any American gymnast as of 2023.
20. She owns six world all-around titles from 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019, and 2023.
21. She has 30 World Championship medals as of 2023.
22. Those world medals include 23 golds, 4 silvers, and 3 bronzes as of 2023.
23. She has seven Olympic medals: four gold, one silver, and two bronze.
24. Her four gold medals at Rio 2016 tied the record for most by a U.S. woman at a single Summer Games.
25. She is the most decorated gymnast in history with 37 combined World and Olympic medals as of 2023.
26. She has contributed to U.S. team gold at five World Championships between 2014 and 2023.
27. She was the first woman to win five all-around titles at the World Championships.
28. She is the only American woman to have world medals on every apparatus across her career.
29. She won uneven bars bronze at the 2018 World Championships, completing a career medal set across all four women’s events.
30. She has medaled on every women’s event across Worlds and Olympics, with Olympic uneven bars as the only event without an Olympic medal.
31. She has won six world titles on floor exercise.
32. She has won three world titles on vault.
33. She has won three world titles on balance beam.
34. She won the U.S. all-around by more than five points in 2016, a huge margin in gymnastics.
35. She posted vault scores in the mid-15s at the 2018 Worlds team final while competing with a kidney stone.
36. Her teams have won some World Championships by more than eight points, an unusually large gap in elite gymnastics.
37. Her four Olympic golds in 2016 came across team, all-around, vault, and floor.
38. She has captured major all-around titles on three continents, including Europe and Asia.

Skills & how they work

39. She has five eponymous elements officially named in the women’s Code of Points as of 2023.
40. On floor exercise, the Biles is a double layout with a half twist on the second flip.
41. The Biles II on floor is a triple-twisting double back, often called a triple-double.
42. On balance beam, the Biles is a double-twisting double back dismount.
43. On vault, the Biles is a round-off half-on front layout half-off.
44. Her Yurchenko double pike vault was added to the Code as the Biles II on vault in 2023.
45. A Yurchenko double pike uses two backward flips in a piked position after the block.
46. Her triple-double on floor turns three times while flipping twice before landing.
47. The triple-double was first landed by a woman in 2019.
48. The double-double beam dismount debuted with one of the highest difficulty ratings for a beam dismount.
49. She often opens floor routines with her most difficult tumbling pass to maximize bonus.
50. Her powerful run and block let her generate unusually high amplitude on vaults.
51. She uses dowel grips on uneven bars to improve her hold on the rail during release moves.
52. Her floor routines mix tumbling with dance elements that must connect to earn composition credit.
53. She is known for sticking landings, which avoids one- or three-tenth deductions.
54. She typically competes a Cheng or Amanar family vault in addition to her named vault.
55. The Amanar is a Yurchenko-style vault with 2.5 twists in the air.
56. The Cheng is a round-off half-on layout with 1.5 twists off the table.
57. On floor, she often performs leaps that achieve 180 degrees split to satisfy requirements.
58. Her beam series commonly includes back handspring to layout stepout connections for bonus.
59. She trains with soft mats stacked over landings to reduce impact during repetition.
60. She has competed floor routines with four separate tumbling passes, each meeting specific skill group rules.

Training & competition

61. Elite women’s routines are judged with separate difficulty and execution scores added together.
62. Her difficulty scores have often been the highest in the field, creating multi-point cushions.
63. She has competed internationally since 2013, with appearances in meets across Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
64. She took the 2017 season off from competition.
65. She returned in 2018 and won the U.S. and world all-around titles.
66. She has competed while dealing with kidney stone pain at the 2018 World Championships.
67. She helped the U.S. win team gold at the 2018 and 2019 Worlds after her return.
68. She experienced the "twisties" in Tokyo 2020 and withdrew from several finals for safety.
69. She was part of the U.S. squad that earned team silver at the Tokyo Olympics.
70. She returned to win beam bronze in Tokyo using a simpler, twist-free dismount.
71. In 2021 she took additional time away before resuming full difficulty in 2023.
72. She won the 2023 U.S. Classic all-around in her first meet back after Tokyo.
73. She then won the 2023 U.S. Championships all-around by a wide margin.
74. She helped the U.S. women secure team gold at the 2023 World Championships in Antwerp.
75. She also won the 2023 world all-around title in Antwerp.
76. She earned individual golds on vault and floor and a silver on beam at the 2023 Worlds.
77. Her preparation includes strength work for core, legs, and shoulders to handle high-impact skills.
78. Recovery strategies like ice baths, massage, and sleep are key parts of her training week.

Olympics highlights

79. She made her Olympic debut at Rio 2016.
80. In Rio she won team gold with the U.S. women.
81. She won the Olympic all-around title in Rio by more than two points.
82. She captured vault gold in Rio with powerful Amanar and Cheng vaults.
83. She earned floor exercise gold in Rio with a dynamic routine.
84. She took bronze on beam in Rio after a small balance error.
85. Her four gold medals in Rio tied the most by any U.S. woman at those Games.
86. She was chosen as the U.S. flag bearer for the Rio closing ceremony.
87. She qualified to five finals in Tokyo 2020 despite the pandemic delay.
88. After Tokyo she became a prominent voice for athlete mental health.
89. She is one of the few gymnasts to win both Olympic team and all-around gold in the same Games.
90. She has competed in two Olympic cycles separated by a five-year gap due to the postponement.
91. Her Olympic routines have showcased difficulty values rarely seen in women’s gymnastics.
92. She performed the Yurchenko double pike in competition before it was officially added to the Code.
93. The Olympic vault runway is 25 meters long, giving athletes room to reach top speed.
94. She traveled to the Tokyo Games without family in the stands due to spectator limits.
95. She has said the Olympic experience feels very different from Worlds because of the multi-sport atmosphere.
96. Her Rio floor music featured upbeat rhythms that matched her explosive tumbling.

World Championships highlights

97. She won her first world all-around title in Antwerp in 2013.
98. She defended her all-around crown in Nanning in 2014.
99. She completed a three-peat in Glasgow in 2015.
100. She returned from her 2017 break to win all-around gold in Doha in 2018.
101. In Doha 2018 she also medaled on all four apparatus.
102. She won all-around gold again in Stuttgart in 2019.
103. In Stuttgart 2019 she added beam, vault, and floor titles to her haul.
104. Antwerp 2023 marked her sixth world all-around title.
105. The U.S. women dominated the World team title for much of the 2010s and early 2020s, and she anchored several of those wins.
106. Her world medals span host nations across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
107. In 2013 Worlds she introduced the floor skill that became known as the Biles.
108. In 2019 Worlds she landed the triple-double on floor for the first time in a world event.
109. In 2019 Worlds she also debuted the double-double beam dismount.
110. In 2023 Worlds her Yurchenko double pike was added to the Code after being performed internationally.
111. Antwerp is notable in her career as the site of her first and sixth world all-around titles.
112. She has stood on World Championship podiums in every year she has entered since 2013.
113. Her cumulative world medal count surpassed the previous all-time record in 2019.
114. She has led the United States to every world team final she has contested since 2013.

For kids: quick comparisons

115. She is about the height of a kitchen countertop at 1.42 meters.
116. If you watch slow motion, her triple-double shows three distinct shoulder turns before her feet hit the floor.
117. A floor exercise mat is 12 meters by 12 meters, and she often covers it in four passes.
118. The double pike vault requires judges to see a clear pike position without tucking the knees.
119. Her vault run is roughly the length of a classroom at 25 meters.
120. Her competition leotards can sparkle with thousands of crystals.
121. A world medal typically weighs a few hundred grams, about the weight of a small apple.
122. Her balance beam is only 10 centimeters wide, about the width of a smartphone.
123. She trains more hours in a week than many kids spend in two weeks of gym class.
124. Her vaults can send her close to the height of a basketball rim before she starts to flip.

Pop culture & fun extras

125. She published a memoir titled "Courage to Soar" in 2016.
126. She competed on a prime-time dance show in 2017 and reached the semifinals.
127. She is known for wearing a tiny goat graphic on some training leotards as a playful nod to her nickname.
128. She has two dogs that often appear on her social media.
129. She has celebrated big wins with pizza as a favorite post-meet treat.
130. She enjoys sharing practice clips and travel moments with fans online.
131. Her signature smile and air awareness have made her one of the most recognizable athletes in the world.
132. She married NFL safety Jonathan Owens in 2023.
133. Their wedding included a courthouse ceremony followed by a beach celebration with family and friends.
134. She has been featured on multiple magazine covers across her career.
135. She has visited the White House as part of championship celebrations.
136. She has inspired fan art, murals, and school projects around the world.

Impact, advocacy & legacy

137. She has openly discussed her mental health and the importance of athlete safety.
138. She testified before lawmakers in 2021 to support survivors of abuse in sports.
139. She has spoken about managing ADHD and competing with a therapeutic use exemption.
140. Her dominance has pushed judges and officials to reconsider difficulty values for extreme skills.
141. Many young gymnasts choose her as their role model when asked about inspiration.
142. Her meets often draw some of the largest TV audiences for gymnastics in the United States.
143. Her routines have broadened expectations for what women can safely perform in artistic gymnastics.
144. She has shown that stepping back to protect health can be a form of leadership.
145. Her career continues to influence training methods, skill design, and athlete advocacy worldwide.

Quick FAQ

Q: How many Olympic medals does Simone Biles have?
A: She has seven Olympic medals, including four golds.

Q: What are Simone Biles’ named skills?
A: She has five elements named after her across floor, beam, and vault.

Q: How tall is Simone Biles?
A: She is 1.42 meters tall (about 4 feet 8 inches).

Q: When did Simone Biles first win a world all-around title?
A: She won her first world all-around title in 2013.

Q: Why did Simone Biles withdraw from events at Tokyo 2020?
A: She experienced the "twisties," a dangerous loss of air awareness, and stepped back for safety.