Simone Biles (b. 1997)
Filed under the name Simone · May 13, 2026
Simone Biles is, statistically, just the most decorated gymnast in world championship history, full stop, and she did it by inventing skills so difficult other gymnasts weren't even allowed to attempt them at full value for a while. I did a bit at an open mic once about how my "athletic achievement" ceiling is climbing a wall at a gym in Austin twice a month, so let's just say I approach Biles's career from a place of profound physical inadequacy and total respect. What actually gets me, though, is less the medals and more that she's been candid about the mental side of the sport, including stepping back publicly when she needed to — that kind of honesty from someone at the literal top of a brutal, high-pressure field is rare and, frankly, braver than another gold medal would've been. My therapist would probably say something similar about me and rock climbing, minus the Olympic stakes. Biles basically redefined what her sport's ceiling even looked like, and then redefined what taking care of yourself at that level looked like too.