On Tuesday July 30, after her historic win at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Simone Biles shared an Instagram story of Ronald Biles watching her compete.
Simone, the most decorated American gymnast, opened up about her childhood and how she and her siblings were starving in the care of her biological mother who was “struggling with drug and alcohol abuse.” Keep reading to learn about this inspiring athlete!
Long before 26-year-old Simone Biles was flipping, launching and spinning, she was living in foster care with her siblings, Adria, Tevin and Ashley. Simone’s birth mother Shanon was dependent on alcohol and drugs, and unable to care for her four children.
“It was hard to give up my kids but I had to do what I had to, I wasn’t able to care for them,” Shanon tells the Daily Mail, adding the kid’s father – also an addict – was absent.
Speaking with CNN, Simone candidly speaks of her experience as a child and the “hardships” she experienced with her addict mom.
“When my siblings and I entered foster care, it was because our biological mom was struggling with drug and alcohol abuse. I was three years old,” she tells CNN. Two decades later, she still has vivid memories of starving.
“I just remember, like, us as kids being so hungry and then I just remember this cat that would get fed and not like…us,” she shares in the clip. “And so we were taken and, thankfully, we actually got to stay in one foster home and we were all together… it was some of the best times ever. We were just so excited.”
Adding to that excitement were the frequent visits from her grandparents, Ronald and Nellie Biles, who adopted Simone (then six) and her little sister Adria, who is now 24.
“I wanted to take care of Adria obviously because she was the baby,” Simone said on her Facebook Watch series, Simone vs. Herself. “I just felt like I needed to look out for her because if family doesn’t look out for you, who’s going to?”
Their siblings Tevin and Ashley were adopted by Ronald’s sister and raised in Cleveland, Ohio.
Life changing rain day
And then, a rained-out school trip completely changed the course of Simone’s life.
“I never, ever, thought about gymnastics as a sport to put Simone in, that never entered my mind,” says Nellie of her adopted daughter on Simone vs Herself. “I remember it was a field trip, but it rained so they did not go to this farm or wherever they were supposed to go and instead they went to Bannon’s Gymnastix.”
Confirming her mother’s memory, Simone offers more information to her fans, saying the first time she was exposed to gymnastics was in “daycare on a school trip.”
“I don’t ever remember watching it on TV or seeing pictures in a magazine,” the athlete says, adding she learned by “imitating” other girls.
Ever since, Nellie and Ronald attended every meet, watching Simone slay the competition.
Explaining that she has a “bad habit” of trying to locate her biggest cheerleaders in the crowd, Simone said she would be “kind of nervous” to compete without her parents watching.
“I don’t feel set and comfortable until I find where they are in the crowd. I just get really antsy and once I see them, I feel that it calms me down to know that they’re in the arena.”
The only competition the Biles couple missed was the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, where fans were not allowed due to COVID-19 restrictions. Ultimately, Simone pulled out of the women’s team final and “four subsequent individual finals to prioritize her health as she dealt with a case of what gymnasts call the ‘twisties,’ where the body and mind fall out of sync.”
Dad and his binoculars
Cheering on Simone and Team USA in the 2024 Olympics in Paris, Ronald and Nellie were joined by Simone’s husband Jonathan Owens, a football player who took time off training camp with the Chicago Bears to support his wife (married in 2023).
“It really doesn’t matter where we are, which competition it is, she knows where we’re sitting. She can hear me, I know that because I scream so loud,” the proud Nellie shares in the Facebook clip.
And when Simone scanned the Bercy Arena in Paris for her parents, she saw Owens, wearing a colorful t-shirt with his wife’s images, seated next to Nellie, wearing a huge smile, and her dad, whose face is hidden by binoculars that he used to watch his daughter.
“My dad and his binoculars is so freaking cute,” she writes in an Instagram story that shows fans the adorable family picture.
Friends of the Children
In addition to claiming the title as the U.S gymnast who holds the most medals, Simone also supports Friends of the Children, an organization that offers long-term nurturing care to kids in foster care.
“It gives them love and support because that’s what these kids need, so to have that one constant means the world to them,” the fierce advocate for the group tells CNN.
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