Simone Arianne Biles Owens is an American artistic gymnast. With a total of 37 Olympic and World Championship medals, she is the most decorated gymnast in history, and she is widely considered one of the greatest gymnasts of all time. Her seven Olympic gymnastics medals are ninth-most of all time and tied with Shannon Miller for the most by a U.S. gymnast.
At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Biles won individual gold medals in the all-around, vault, and floor; bronze on balance beam; and gold as part of the United States team, dubbed the "Final Five". At the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, where she was favored to win at least four of the six available gold medals, she withdrew from most of the competition due to "the twisties", a temporary loss of air awareness while performing twisting elements. She won a silver medal with her team and a bronze medal on the balance beam.
Biles is a six-times World all-around champion (2013–2015, 2018–2019, 2023), six-times World floor exercise champion (2013–2015, 2018–2019, 2023), four-times World balance beam champion (2014–2015, 2019, 2023), two-times World vault champion (2018–2019), an nine-times United States national all-around champion (2013–2016, 2018–2019, 2021, 2023–2024), and a member of the gold medal-winning American teams at the 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019, and 2023 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. She is also a four-times World silver medalist (2013–2014 and 2023 on vault, 2018 on uneven bars) and a three-times World bronze medalist (2015 on vault, 2013 and 2018 on balance beam).
In 2019, Biles broke the record for most World Championship medals in gymnastics; she won her 24th and 25th medals at the event, surpassing Vitaly Scherbo's 23 World medals. Biles has since secured an additional five World medals, for a total of 30. She holds the record for World all-around titles (6), and is the sixth woman to win an individual all-around title at both the World Championships and the Olympics, the first since Lilia Podkopayeva in 1996 to hold both titles simultaneously. Biles is the tenth female gymnast and first American female gymnast to win a World medal on every event, and the first female gymnast since Daniela Silivaș in 1988 to win a medal on every event at a single Olympic Games or World Championships.
In 2022, Joe Biden awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2023, she won her eighth U.S. Gymnastics title, breaking the 90-year-old U.S. Gymnastics title record previously held by Alfred Jochim. Biles won the Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year three-times (2017, 2019, 2020), and Comeback of the Year one time (2024).
