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- 7 Facts About Simone Biles That Prove She's the GOAT in More Ways Than One
7 Facts About Simone Biles That Prove She's the GOAT in More Ways Than One
Getty / Laurence Griffiths
Indisputable fact: Simone Biles is the greatest gymnast of all time. The 22-year-old has racked up an astonishing six national all-around titles and a record 25 World Championship medals, 19 of which are gold – and if she competes at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, she’ll undoubtedly add even more medals to her ever-growing collection. (She already has four gold medals and one bronze from the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, but who’s counting?) While all of Simone’s accomplishments are legendary, we’ve managed to dig up a few fun tidbits you might not know about the 4’8″ superstar. And fact: they’ll make you love her even more.
Related: Watch Some of Simone Biles's Best Gymnastics Routines of All Time – Because She's Greatness
Getty / Karim Jaafar
She Once Competed With a Kidney Stone
Despite leading Team USA to gold at the 2018 Gymnastics World Championships in Doha, Simone was suffering severe pain from a kidney stone. Though she’d been admitted to the hospital before the meet, she’d left without passing the stone, which she lovingly nicknamed the “Doha Pearl” due to its size. She later joked to USA Today, “I’m trying not to move every time I do something just in case [the stone] moves. Then I also hear roller coasters might help kidney stones, and I’m like my own roller coaster out there.”
Getty / Emmanuel Dunand
She Has a Love-Hate Relationship With the Beam
Ever since she took home a bronze medal on the balance beam at the Rio Olympics in 2016, Simone has struggled with her confidence on the beam. Even more than three years later, she confessed to USA Today Sports that 2016 affected her feelings about the beam in a way she wasn’t sure she could recover from – but she’s definitely made progress. “It took a while,” she said. “I have this love-hate relationship with the beam. I’ve always told myself, ‘If you hate beam, the beam will hate you.'”
Getty / Laurence Griffiths
She Isn't Afraid to Call Herself the Best
Pretty much anyone will tell you that Simone is the best gymnast of all time, and you know what? She’ll agree with you. As Simone explained to USA Today in October 2019, after becoming the most decorated gymnast in World Championship history, her dominance in the sport is simply an objective fact. “It’s not out of cockiness,” she said. “I’ve won five world titles and if I say, ‘I’m the best gymnast there is,’ [the reaction is], ‘Oh, she’s cocky. Look at her now.’ No, the facts are literally on the paper.”
Simone thinks it’s important to recognize her own talent so that other girls and women are comfortable doing 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 said. “You only see the men doing it. And they’re praised for it and the women are looked down upon for it. But I feel like it’s good [to do] because once you realize you’re confident and good at it, then you’re even better at what you do.”