- Simone Biles had a difficult childhood with her biological mom, with social workers eventually coming in to save her and her siblings from starving.
- Biles’ grandparents wholeheartedly adopted her and her sister, while her two other siblings went to live with their great-aunt.
- Years later, Biles’ grandfather, whom she also considers her dad, walked her down the aisle in her dream destination wedding to Jonathan Owens.
Before Simone Biles became a world-famous gymnast, she had to endure so much in her younger years. She and her siblings were left in foster care after their biological mother was deemed unfit to raise them.
Memories of her time in foster care remain vivid in Biles’ mind even two decades later. She’d play in the backyard, diligently do her schoolwork, and talk to her older siblings through the vents as they slept in separate rooms.
She’d also sneak into her brother’s room at night to check on him. She feared waking up in the morning to find her brother gone and transferred to another foster home.
Nowadays, Biles volunteers to provide children in the foster system with clothes and school supplies. While people might see this as a publicity stunt, it’s way deeper than that for the gymnast, who knows what it’s like to be one of them. She once said:
“I know exactly how it is, and I know exactly how you feel being a foster kid. I can be a voice for them. I can help them, and I can tell them that they’re not alone and that it’s going to be okay.”
She is involved with Mattress Firm Foster Kids, which is a program that provides six annual drives to collect items that foster children and families can benefit from. The program is affiliated with 115 nonprofit organizations across 40 US states.
Biles, now 26 years old, has a whopping 32 Olympic and world medals, matching Russian Larisa Latynina’s record. Biles has seven Olympic medals, tying Shannon Miller as America’s most successful gymnast in the prestigious Games.
When being compared to other athletes, Biles is firm in saying she’s not the “next” anything. “I’m not the next Usain Bolt or Michael Phelps – I’m the first Simone Biles,” she’d tell people.
And at 26, Biles has earned that spot as one of the world’s greatest athletes. She’s one of the greatest gymnasts the world has seen, with no signs of stopping anytime soon.
Biles first gained worldwide recognition when she won two World Championship golds in 2013 when she was only 16. She then followed that up with four golds in 2014 and another four golds in 2015.