Simone Biles: When Protecting Your Mind Becomes the Greatest Victory

Kier Cordero
November 29, 2025

Simone Biles is widely regarded as the greatest gymnast of all time, not only for her dominant performances but also for the courage she showed when she chose to protect her mental health on the world’s biggest stage. With multiple Olympic gold medals, four signature skills named after her, and routines that permanently raised the difficulty level of women’s gymnastics, Biles has transformed the sport in ways few athletes ever have.

But her influence extends beyond medals and records. By withdrawing from key events during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics to prioritize her mental well-being, Biles sparked a global conversation about athlete safety, pressure, and mental health—challenging long-standing expectations within high-performance sports. Her story continues to redefine what strength looks like in modern athletics, a journey that inspires not only gymnasts but audiences worldwide. It’s this evolving definition of greatness that Juan Sports seeks to highlight through athletes like Simone Biles.

The Making of a Champion: Roots, Adoption, and Early Challenges

Simone Biles was born in 1997 in Ohio, into a situation marked by instability due to her birth mother’s struggles with addiction. At age three, Simone and her siblings entered foster care. A year later, her grandparents—Ron and Nellie Biles—adopted Simone and her younger sister, giving them the stable home they needed. This family shift became the foundation of Simone’s future success.

Her introduction to gymnastics happened by accident. During a daycare field trip, staff noticed her imitating the team’s moves with unusual power and precision. Coaches recommended formal training, and within a few years, Simone was outperforming older gymnasts. However, she struggled academically due to attention and focus issues, later identified as ADHD—something she would openly discuss as an adult.

Despite early challenges, Simone’s upbringing in a supportive, tight-knit family and her natural athletic ability created the environment that allowed her to rise. Her path started with adversity, was shaped by unexpected beginnings, and was strengthened by the family who chose her.

Redefining Gymnastics: Skills Only Biles Can Perform

Simone Biles didn’t just dominate gymnastics—she changed what the sport considers possible. She currently has five official elements named after her (four in women’s gymnastics, one in men’s), each requiring a level of power and airtime unmatched by other athletes.

Her most famous skills include:

The Biles on Floor: A double layout with a half-twist—so difficult that only she has landed it in competition.
The Biles II on Floor: A triple-twisting, double backflip—considered one of the hardest tumbling passes ever performed.
The Biles on Vault (Yurchenko double pike): A skill so dangerous that judges intentionally scored it low to discourage others from attempting it.
The Biles on Beam: A double-double dismount requiring exceptional body control.

What many people don’t know:

The International Gymnastics Federation often assigns her skills lower difficulty values than experts believe they deserve, partly because they’re considered too risky for most gymnasts.
Her power and height in tumbling are so extreme that slow-motion replays are often needed to track her rotations.
Coaches redesigned entire training models to keep up with her progression.

Simone Biles didn’t just raise the bar—she forced the sport to rewrite it.

A Career Built on Unmatched Consistency

Simone Biles’ dominance isn’t just about difficulty—it’s about how consistently she performs at a level no one else can match. Since her senior debut in 2013, Biles has won every all-around competition she has completed, a streak unheard of in gymnastics history.

Key points most people don’t realize:

She is the most decorated gymnast ever, with more than 30 World and Olympic medals—surpassing both male and female athletes in the sport.
Even after taking a two-year break (2016–2018), she returned and immediately swept the World Championships, winning medals on every apparatus—something incredibly rare.
She became the first woman in 30 years to win five U.S. all-around titles, and the only one to earn seven national titles in total.

Her longevity is equally remarkable. Gymnasts typically peak in their teens, yet Simone Biles continued performing the world’s hardest skills into her mid-20s—and is still active today. Her ability to stay at the top for more than a decade is one of the most consistent runs any gymnast has ever produced.

The Twisties: What Really Happened in Tokyo 2020

During the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Simone Biles shocked the world when she withdrew from several events after experiencing the twisties—a neurological phenomenon where a gymnast suddenly loses air awareness while flipping or twisting mid-air. It’s not fear or hesitation; it’s a dangerous mental block that makes it nearly impossible to know where the body is during rotation.

Key points many people don’t know:

The twisties can cause severe injury or paralysis if a gymnast attempts high-difficulty skills without spatial awareness.
Biles first felt the twisties during warm-ups, not during competition, which meant she had no safe way to adjust her routines.
Stress, trauma, and pressure can trigger the twisties, and Simone Biles later revealed she was carrying the weight of the Larry Nassar investigation and years of emotional strain.
Despite withdrawing from most events, she still earned a bronze medal on beam by choosing a safer dismount.

Her decision to step back wasn’t a retreat—it was a safety choice that brought global attention to athlete mental health, proving that protecting your mind and body is sometimes the bravest move an athlete can make.

Advocacy and Mental Health: Becoming the Voice Gymnastics Needed

After Tokyo 2020, Simone Biles became one of the most influential voices for mental health in sports—not because she planned to, but because she had to. Her decision to step back opened a global conversation that athletes across all sports had been afraid to start.

Key points worth knowing:

Biles openly discussed therapy, anxiety, and the pressure of carrying the expectations of a nation—something very few elite gymnasts had spoken about publicly.
Her transparency encouraged other athletes, including Naomi Osaka and several NFL and NBA players, to speak openly about their own mental health struggles.
She emphasized that mental health is as important as physical readiness, a message that helped shift how training staff, federations, and fans view athlete well-being.
Simone Biles’ stance pushed organizations—including USA Gymnastics and the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee—to revisit athlete support systems.

Her advocacy didn’t come from a PR campaign—it came from personal experience and a genuine need to highlight the unseen cost of elite performance. She became the role model the next generation didn’t know they needed.

Standing Up to the System: The Larry Nassar Scandal and Testimony

Simone Biles is not only the most decorated gymnast in history—she is also the most high-profile survivor of the Larry Nassar abuse scandal, one of the largest in sports history. Speaking out was not easy, and most people don’t realize the depth of her involvement or the emotional weight she carried.

Key details that matter:

Biles publicly identified herself as a survivor in 2018, becoming the final member of the “Final Five” to speak out.
Her decision was crucial because she was the most recognized gymnast in the world at the time—her voice made it impossible for the issue to be ignored or minimized.
She testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in 2021, directly criticizing the FBI, USA Gymnastics, and the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee for failing to protect athletes.
Biles’ testimony was emotional and widely praised for its honesty. She stated clearly that the system “failed” her and hundreds of other gymnasts.
Despite carrying the trauma, she still returned to compete at Tokyo 2020—something she later said took everything she had.

This chapter of her story shows strength beyond sport: Simone Biles used her platform to demand accountability and safer environments for future athletes, making her influence far greater than medals or records alone.

Beyond the Podium: Biles’ Life, Identity, and Personal Reinvention

Outside the gym, Simone Biles has built a life centered on growth, stability, and redefining what life after elite competition can look like for a gymnast.

Key highlights:

Marriage and personal life: Biles married NFL player Jonathan Owens in 2023, and the relationship has become a grounding force for her as she balances fame and healing.
Return to competition: After stepping back post-Tokyo, Biles made a surprising comeback in 2023. She not only returned but also dominated, winning the U.S. Classic and World Championships—proving she could still compete at the highest level without sacrificing her mental boundaries.
Brand and business ventures: She has partnerships with major companies like Athleta, Uber Eats, and Wheaties, but she chooses collaborations selectively, prioritizing brands aligned with empowerment and wellness.
Community influence: Simone Biles frequently speaks at events and works with organizations focused on mental health, children’s sports, and safe training environments.
Gymnastics reimagined: She opened her own gymnastics facility—World Champions Centre—which serves as both a training environment and a safe space built on values she wished she had earlier in her career.

Biles’ life today reflects resilience, maturity, and the determination to shape her narrative on her own terms.

How Simone Biles Changed the Sport Forever

Simone Biles didn’t just dominate gymnastics—she reshaped the sport’s standards, rules, and culture in ways that will outlast her career.

Key shifts she created:

Raising the Difficulty Ceiling: Biles introduced skills so advanced that the Code of Points had to be re-evaluated. Her power forced judges to reconsider how difficulty is valued, and her routines set a new benchmark for what’s possible in women’s gymnastics.
Redefining Longevity: Gymnasts typically peak as teenagers, but Simone Biles proved that women can remain at the highest level well into their 20s. Her continued dominance after long breaks reshaped expectations about age and endurance in the sport.
Prioritizing Athlete Safety and Mental Health: Her Tokyo decision changed global perceptions of “toughness.” She proved that self-protection is not weakness—ushering in a new era where mental health is openly discussed and supported in elite sports.
Demanding Systemic Accountability: By speaking publicly about abuse and testifying against USA Gymnastics and the Olympic committee, Biles forced a reckoning within the sport. Policies, oversight, and athlete protections were strengthened because she refused to stay silent.
Inspiring the Next Generation: Young gymnasts worldwide now train with Biles-inspired power, difficulty, and confidence. Many of today’s emerging stars cite her as the reason they started gymnastics.

Simone Biles transformed not just routines but the entire culture around gymnastics—from scoring systems to athlete welfare—all while remaining the sport’s most decorated champion.

Victory Beyond Medals

Simone Biles’ journey proves that greatness isn’t measured only by medals but by the courage to protect your body, speak the truth, and redefine the standards of your sport. From her unprecedented skills to her decision to prioritize mental well-being on the world stage, Biles has pushed gymnastics forward in ways that will shape the next generation of athletes.

Her influence extends beyond routines and championships—she challenged systems, elevated athlete safety, and opened conversations that had long been ignored in elite sports. Simone Simone Biles changed the sport not just with what she could do in the air, but with the strength she showed on the ground.