Simone Arianne Biles

Simone Arianne Biles (born March 14, 1997)[4] is an American artistic gymnast. Biles is the 2016 Olympic individual all-around, vault and floor gold medalist. She was part of the gold medal-winning team dubbed the "Final Five" at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. She also won the bronze medal for the balance beam during the Olympics. Biles is a three-time world all-around champion (2013–15), three-time world floor champion (2013–15), two-time world balance beam champion (2014, 2015), four-time United States national all-around champion (2013–16), and a member of the gold medal-winning American teams at the 2014 and 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.

Having won a combined total of nineteen Olympic and World Championship medals, Biles is the most decorated American gymnast, taking over from Shannon Miller, who had held this record since 1996. Biles is one of only six women to have won an individual all-around title at both the World Championships and the Olympic Games; the others are Larisa Latynina (1956, 1958, 1960, 1962), Věra Čáslavská (1964, 1966, 1968), Ludmilla Tourischeva (1970, 1972, 1974), Elena Shushunova (1985, 1988) and Lilia Podkopayeva (1995, 1996).

Personal life
Simone Arianne Biles was born on March 14, 1997, in Columbus, Ohio. Her birth mother, Shanon Biles, was unable to care for Simone or her other children – Ashley (seven years older than Simone), Tevin (five years older), and Adria (two years younger) – due to her drug and alcohol addiction, and the children were in and out of foster care. Simone's birth father, Kelvin Clemons, also struggled with addictions.[6] Shanon's father, Ron, and his second wife, Nellie Biles, who had two nearly-adult sons, Ron Jr. and Adam, began temporarily caring for Shanon's children in 2000, in the north Houston suburb of Spring, Texas. In 2003 the couple officially adopted the two youngest children, Simone and Adria, and Ron's sister, Jean, adopted the two eldest. Ron, Simone's father, is originally from Haiti, and is a retired air traffic controller, and Nellie Cayetano, Simone's mother, emigrated from Belize, and is the former co-owner of a chain of nursing homes.

Simone Biles spent all her secondary education as a homeschooler and graduated in summer 2015. She verbally committed to UCLA on August 4, 2014, announcing her decision on Twitter. She planned to defer enrollment until after the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. On July 29, 2015, she announced that she would turn professional, forfeiting her NCAA eligibility.[15] Her sister Adria is also a gymnast.

Biles first tried gymnastics at six years old as part of a day-care field trip. The instructors suggested she continue with gymnastics. Biles soon enrolled in an optional training program at Bannon's Gymnastix. She began training with coach Aimee Boorman at age.

READ FULL STORY