The 21-year-old American Simone Biles is a new legend in gymnastics. Despite her young age, Biles has already become the absolute world champion for several many times, and besides that, she is the first African-American woman that managed to win such a high title in gymnastics.
Simone Biles is called the new Queen B, a robot, and Surya Bonaly in gymnastics because of the predominance of her physics over her femininity. A sports element that is beyond anyone’s control was named after her. A biopic about her uneasy path from a usual girl to the greatest gymnast of modern times in the United States is released in 2018.
Simone Biles is an Olympic champion, and she has repeatedly become the world champion. She performs the most complex, often dangerous elements, and leaves all her competitors far behind. It is an interesting fact but her growth is only 142 cm and her weight is 47 kg.
Childhood
It is known that Simone Biles had not a very good childhood. Simone’s mother suffered from alcohol and drug addiction, so the girl with her brothers and sisters until the age of 5 was raised in an orphanage until they were adopted by their own grandfather and his wife. Nevertheless, Simone is very fond of her family and claims that their support for her is extremely important.
At the age of six, Biles started doing gymnastics. Instead of sitting at the school desk, the girl was training at home, which allowed her to train up to 32 hours a week. This explains the sharp increase in results. Being only 14 years old she got into the junior team of the national team. Simone intended to enter the University of California but she postponed this event until the end of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. At the Olympics in London, an American did not get by age.
Gymnastics
Her first serious performance took place in 2011 in Houston on the American Classic. The brash girl won the exercises on the log and the supporting jump eventually became the third in the all-around. Further, under the guidance of Amy Burman, whom the gymnast calls her second mother, Simone began to conquer the peaks. In 2012, she participated in the US championship, in 2013 she debuted in the international arena on the Cup of America.
Then the girl received an invitation to the private training center Bela and Marta Karolyi – a famous Rancho Karolyi, which trains high-class athletes since the 80s. The training center in Houston is considered to be going ahead of the whole planet. Such stars as Nadia Comаneci, Julianne McNamara, Mary Lou Retton were training there. Biles, the first African American who became the world champion in the all-around, also joined them.
After a couple of years for the first time in the world, Simone won three consecutive gold all-around, which brought her record ten gold medals in international competitions. Thus, the gymnast clearly illustrated the principle of the work of the Karolyi spouses – only the first place.
A little monster
There is a cult of muscle strength in the US gymnastics team. This helps primarily in the base jump and floor exercises, but it is almost useless on the log. In Rio in this form, Biles, that was nicknamed a little monster (for her weight 47 kg and her height 142 cm), won only a bronze medal.
When it came to the free exercise, then, as it was noted by journalists, when Simone appeared on the carpet, the competitions, in principle, ended. A lot of videos demonstrating the phenomenal power of Biles were posted on the Internet. They became really viral and gathered millions of views on YouTube.
In 2016, Simone, along with basketball player LeBron James, was awarded the title of athlete of the year in America. The title, established by the authoritative agency Associated Press, was awarded to the Olympic champion for revolutionary changes in gymnastics and the conquest of new frontiers.
Doping
After the WADA database had got to the Internet, it turned out that Simone had taken doping with the permission of the organization. The athlete made a post on her Twitter and said that she has been diagnosed with attention deficit and hyperactivity syndrome since childhood.Simone said that she always followed the rules and will continue following the principles of a fair play because it is necessary in sports and it is very important for her.
However, several doctors commented on the situation and said that American doctors made their lives easier by putting a diagnosis to the child explaining all the problems. Moreover, medications prescribed to the girl are essentially drugs, the use of which is strictly limited, and long-term taking, in addition to other side effects, causes a delay in growth.
In the fall of 2017, Simone resumed training with a new mentor Laurent Landi. Her former coach Amy Burman moved to Florida to take up the post of executive director at Evo Athletics.
Sexual harassment
[the_ad id=”74072″]
Four-time Olympic champion Simone Biles became another victim of harassment. The girl brought charges of sexual violence, which she was exposed at a minor age, to the former doctor of the US national gymnastics team, Larry Nassar. There were a lot of complaints from young gymnasts, but they remained without attention.
When in 2016 this topic became seriously interesting to the journalists of Indianapolis Star, it became impossible to close the eyes on the issue. The media found that the doctor had molested girls for 20 years, covering everything with the need to examine them for injuries.
According to the American press, tens of thousands of files with children’s porn were found at the doctor’s home. While there were hearings in court, one hundred and fifty women made statements about the depraved actions towards them from Nassar. Biles shared that every time it is psychologically difficult to cross the threshold of the sports center, where she and her friends from the national team were subjected to violence.
