The most decorated gymnast in World Championship history, Simone Biles got her start in the sport a bit later than her peers. Where most gymnasts start training as toddlers, Biles took her first classes at age 6.

On a daycare field trip to a nearby gymnasium, a young Biles unwittingly wowed the coaches. She could never sit still, and her habit of jumping around came in handy. Surprisingly, it all started with a challenge from her elder brother.

Simone Biles’ career started with a field trip

The gymnastics GOAT Simone Biles wrote a memoir titled Courage to Soar wherein she detailed how she first started doing gymnastics. Adopted by her maternal grandparents, Biles and her little sister gained two older brothers, Ron II and Adam, who both worked at their daycare.

When a scheduled daycare field trip to a farm got ruined by pouring rain, Adam suggested Bannon’s Gymnastix just down the street as the substitute. It proved to be the ideal destination for the energetic young Biles as she found every apparatus in her size and completely let loose. 

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After a while, her brother Adam came up to her and said, “Simone, do a flip. Let me see you do a flip.” Of course, the young athlete had to issue her own stipulations as well. She demanded, “I’ll do one if you do it first.”

According to the memoir, Adam’s attempt at a backflip failed as “instead of landing on his feet, he landed on his butt.” Adam issued a challenge when he saw his little sister laughing at him. He said, “Okay, smartypants, if you can do it better, then show me.”

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Biles’ answer to her brother’s challenge attracted attention

Always hungry for a challenge, the six-year-old Simone Biles went for it. She explains in her book, “I did a backflip with a little twist in the layout, and then I did it again, landing upright on my feet.” Right then, Biles saw a lady, who had been keeping an eye on her since she started running around, approach the brother-sister pair.

She introduced herself as Veronica, or ‘Ronnie’, and asked whether Biles had received any formal gymnastics training. While her brother answered that she hadn’t attended a single class in her life, Biles got bored and started doing more flips.

Right then, Ronnie began coaching her, saying, “Point your toes, Simone. Keep your knees together.” She advised Adam to sign his little sister up for classes, but he couldn’t make that decision. So Ronnie sent Biles back home with a letter addressed to her parents, urging them to let the young girl try out the sport. 

Naturally, Biles, who loved bouncing around on trampolines and doing flips, wanted to return to the gym as well. That’s how her journey toward becoming the most dominant elite gymnast of our time began.

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