GYMNASTICS
What are Simone Biles’ stats: records, Olympic medals, championships
Biles, the most decorated gymnast of all time, is trying to add to her medal haul at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
Simone Biles, born on March 14, 1997, in Columbus, Ohio, is already the most decorated gymnast in history, largely thanks to her record in the Olympic Games and Artistic Gymnastics World Championships. She will be looking to extend her legacy at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
The 27-year-old first rose to prominence in 2013 when she achieved remarkable success at the age of 16 by winning two gold medals at the World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium, including the coveted all-around title.
Her dominance continued in the following years, as she secured four gold medals at the 2014 Worlds (in Nanning, China) and another four in 2015 (in Glasgow, Scotland).
Biles’ first Olympic Games: Rio
Although Biles was too young to compete in the 2012 London Olympics, she entered the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro as a favorite. By that time, she had already established herself as a superstar in gymnastics. In Rio, she lived up to the immense expectations and emerged victorious, capturing gold medals in the all-around, team, vault, floor exercises and a bronze on the balance beam. Notably, Biles became the first female U.S. gymnast to win four gold medals at a single Olympic Games, and she also secured her position as the first gymnast to achieve three consecutive world all-around titles from 2013 to 2015.
Biles the most decorated female gymnast in history
2016-2020
The seven-time Olympic medalist subsequently took a break from gymnastics before making her comeback in 2018. At the U.S. national championships that year, the superstar from Ohio became the first female gymnast in nearly 25 years to win all five events, including a record-setting fifth all-around title. Biles became the most-decorated female gymnast in World Championship history when she won four golds (including another all-around title), one silver, and one bronze at the 2018 championships in Doha, Qatar to bring her career total at that competition to 20 medals.
In 2019, Biles went on to make more history by winning five gold medals at the World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany, including the all-around event, becoming the first gymnast in over six decades to achieve this feat. She also surpassed Vitaly Scherbo’s record and became the gymnast with the most World Championship medals, totaling 25. Furthermore, she excelled at the U.S. national championships that year, securing five medals, four of which were gold.
2020-2021
During the 2021 U.S. Classic, Biles achieved another groundbreaking moment by becoming the first female gymnast to successfully execute the Yurchenko double pike, the sport’s most difficult vault, in competition. Later in the same year, at the U.S. national championships, she clinched her seventh all-around title, three additional gold medals, and one bronze.
Biles’ second Olympic Games: Tokyo
At the rescheduled 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games held in 2021 due to the covid-19 pandemic, Biles faced challenges related to mental blocks known as “the twisties” and chose to withdraw from most events. However, she returned for the balance beam final and won a bronze medal.
Simone Biles’ Olympic accomplishments
- Two-time Olympian (2016, 2020); seven-time Olympic medalist (4 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze)
- Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, silver (team), bronze (beam)
- Olympic Games Rio 2016, gold (team, all-around, vault, floor), bronze (beam)
Biles returns after extended break
2023-24
After the Tokyo Olympics, Biles took an extended break to focus on her mental health. She returned to competition more almost two years later at the U.S. Classic on 5 August last year, winning golds in the all-round, balance beam and floor events, as well as completing another Yurchenko double pike.
She then won a record eighth national all-round title at the 2023 U.S. national championships, and placed first in the balance beam and floor exercises.
Last autumn, she added to her World Championship medal haul, returning to Antwerp to claim another four golds, which included a sixth all-around title. Her performance in the competition saw her become the most successful gymnast of all time at the Olympics and Worlds, as well as the first gymnast in the history of the event to win six golds on one apparatus.
In 2024, Biles has continued her superb form, winning her seventh career U.S. all-around Classic title and becoming the first performer to win nine all-around titles at the U.S. national championships, in which she won gold medals in all four events she competed in.