Simone Biles has had a wardrobe blunder before. Last season, she showed up to a Chicago Bears game to support her husband, wearing a Green Bay Packers jacket. The jacket featured motifs of Jonathan Owens in his old No. 34 Packers jersey, even though he had moved to the Bears by then. Biles faced severe backlash from the fans for this. However, she made up for her mistake later by saying, “Yes, I have plenty [of Bears gear] now.” Only this time, the situation could have been much bigger, but luckily, Biles averted it, and like everything else in her career, she dealt with it in stride.

Simone Biles’ focus for most of the night was likely on giving Nadia Comaneci the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2026 Laureus World Sports Awards. And while preparing for that, the last thing the 11-time Olympic medalist would have predicted was having to deal with a potential major wardrobe malfunction. The keyword, however, is ‘potential major wardrobe malfunction,’ because Biles and her team quickly resolved the issue.

Biles shared the incident with fans on her Instagram Stories later. “What you don’t see,” Biles said on Instagram, as per People. “Getting sewn into my dress because it busted.”

The candid behind-the-scenes video showed Biles holding the camera above her head, where a woman was likely sewing her dress onto her body. 

Biles had worn a one-shoulder gold minidress designed by Cong Tri and styled by Marc Desir to the Laureus Sports Awards. It was a feathered dress with a trail on one side. But, she revealed the dress “busted,” and it was not quite the start to the night she would have wanted, but they handled it before it turned into a disaster.

However, Simone Biles is neither new to such problems nor the criticism around her outfits. At the 2025 MET Gala, The Daily Mail reported that Biles’ outfit left fans confused. One of them said, ‘awful choice,’ as Biles wore a cobalt blue mini dress with a huge flowing train.

But such critics and their comments do not faze Biles. In 2021, she wore a leotard with embellished goats on it to hit back at the haters. Biles had said, “[The haters] were joking like, ‘I swear, if she put a goat on her leo, blah, blah, blah.’ That would make them so angry. And then I was like, ‘Oh, that’s actually a good idea.”

And, if anything, this near mishap didn’t take away from the night because Biles’ evening at the 2026 Laureus Sports Awards actually ended exactly the way many had pictured. She was on stage alongside Bart Conner, a fellow Olympic gold medalist and Comaneci’s husband, giving the award to the Romanian icon, Nadia Comaneci.

Following that, Biles visited Polisportiva Garegnano in Milan and was also a special guest for Laureus at the Milano Cortina Olympics. The 2026 Laureus World Sports Awards marks the second time she has appeared as an ambassador for Laureus. And except for her near wardrobe malfunction, things went well at the event.

“Basically the Oscars… but make it sports🤏🏾🤍,” Biles wrote on Instagram. “First @laureussport World Sports Awards as an ambassador and I’m feeling inspired by every story in the room✨.”

Yet the wardrobe malfunction wasn’t the only thing Biles had to navigate in Madrid.

Upon her arrival, fans flooded around her hotel, waiting for the 29-year-old Olympic superstar to turn up. That made her so anxious that she had to reach out to her 10 million fans on social media. 

Simone Biles makes an emotional plea to fans in Madrid

“Okay I reallllllly love how passionate and dedicated y’all are, BUT I have to be honest. It really makes me anxious when you stand outside of the hotel all day,” Biles wrote on her Instagram Stories.

“Can we please please please love from afar & respect privacy xx 🤎🤎🤎.”

However, she didn’t completely shut down the fans. Instead, she offered them a compromise to assuage them as she added, “I would love to take pics while I’m out & about though 🤎”

Ultimately, Biles navigated both the wardrobe mishap and intense fan pressure with a poise that defines her public life, proving her influence now extends far beyond the gymnastics mat.