Before every event, Simone Biles says she scans the arena looking for her mom and dad – her biological grandparents – who give her the comfort and “calm” she needs to slay the competition.
The 27-year-old, now the most decorated gymnast in history, recently made a heartfelt confession about them.
Keep reading to learn why the Olympic champion credits her parents with her success!
In 2016, when Simone Biles was six, her biological mom Shanon signed adoption papers, releasing her and her younger sister Adria to their grandparents, Ronald and Nellie Biles.
How it started: How it’s going: pic.twitter.com/rirskHYKIJ
— Simone Biles (@Simone_Biles) October 8, 2020
Shanon was dependent on alcohol and drugs, and in and out of jail, she was unable to care for her four young children, and they ended up in foster care.
“I don’t remember a lot about foster care, but I definitely knew that we had been taken from our biological mom and then you just think you’re going to go back to her,” Simone said Facebook Watch series, Simone vs. Herself.
“We were very fortunate that we actually got to stay with our siblings because a lot of the time you either get regrouped from home to home to home or you and your siblings get split up,” added the athlete, who recalled going hungry when she lived with her biological mom.
my parents are the cutest people I know 🖤 43years & counting pic.twitter.com/H3LCQA06vP
— Simone Biles (@Simone_Biles) January 25, 2019
Though Simone may not remember details of life in foster care, she does have clear memories of her favorite moments with Ronald.
“Whenever we had visits with my grandpa, I was so excited,” the athlete tearfully recalled in 2017 while she competed on Dancing with the Stars. “That was the person I always wanted to see walk into the foster home.”
‘Flipped a switch’
Revealing that she didn’t see her children for six years after they were in her parents care, Shanon tells the Daily Mail, “When we signed the [adoption] papers, it was like my dad flipped a switch on me – no communication, don’t call, and don’t visit. That’s how it was at the beginning,” Shanon said, adding the kid’s father – also an addict – was absent. “…I was still using and he didn’t want me coming in and out of their lives when I wasn’t right.”
“I was hard-headed, I didn’t care, screaming, ‘I want to see my kids, why you doing this to me?’ I didn’t understand it at the time but years later, I understood why. I had to deal with me first,” Shanon continues.
Simone and Adria (now 24) were adopted by Ronald and Nellie and moved to Texas while Shanon’s other two kids Tevin and Ashley were adopted by Ronald’s sister and raised in Cleveland, Ohio.
And when the children moved into their new home, Simone recalls Ronald telling her: “OK, you know how you called us Grandma and Grandpa? You can call us Mom and Dad now, if you want to.”
‘Turning point’
Simone, the greatest of all time in gymnastics, called her adoption a “turning point in her life,” one that “set me up for a better route at life.”
“I would still be Simone Biles, probably not Simone Biles that everybody else knows, the world knows,” she said in the 2021 Facebook Watch. “But I also believe everything happens for a reason, and I’m forever grateful for that because I definitely got a second shot at life.”
That second shot came in the form of loving parents who enrolled both Simone and Adria in gymnastic class.
“It was history from there,” Nellie tells People “[Simone] never missed a practice, even if she was sick, I would tell her she should stay home, and she would say, ‘No, I have to go to practice!’”
Furthering their support, her parents now own the World Champions Centre in Spring, Texas, the training center where she trained for the Tokyo Olympics.
‘Good Good Father’
When she appeared on Dancing with the Stars, Simone Biles shared an emotional message, honoring her parents, who were seated in the audience.
“My parents saved me,” she said. “They’ve set huge examples of how to treat other people, and they’ve been there to support me since day one. There’s nothing I could say to them to thank them enough.”
She told viewers that she hoped to express her feelings for her parents when she danced a Viennese Waltz to Chris Tomlin’s “Good Good Father.”
Before her parents watched her moving performance through tears, Simone said, “Even though there’s no right words, maybe a dance will say it for me.”
Tokyo Olympics
Her biggest cheerleaders, Nellie and Ronald attend every meet, watching Simone slay the competition.
“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,” Nellie shares in the Facebook clip.
The only event the Biles couple missed was the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, where fans were not allowed due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Explaining that she has a “bad habit” of trying to locate her mom and dad in the crowd, Simone said she was “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.”
Before pulling out to prioritize her health as she dealt with a case of what gymnasts call the ‘twisties,’ Simone called her mom who gave her the best advice.
“I don’t want you going out there if you’re not in a good place. You don’t need to go out there and hurt yourself. That’s just not right, okay? You need to take care of yourself,” Nellie said.
“I love you. Just take some deep breaths and just know that we’re praying for you.”
New Cheerleader
In 2023, Simone added one new team member to her personal cheer squad: Jonathan Owens, a football player with the Chicago Bears who she married on April 22, 2023.
Speaking with People Simone shares that her mom helped her plan the destination wedding in Mexico, a larger ceremony in May that followed the couple’s courthouse nuptials in April.
“She’s someone I can bounce things off of and has been letting me do my thing as I figure out what works for us,” said Simone. “We are so excited to celebrate with our close circle, and she’s a big part of that.”
“My mom gives me advice on everything,” she added. “I look to both her and my dad as role models in many ways, but also as examples of what a strong base of love and support looks like.”
‘Re-writing her story’
On August 5, the gymnast finished her last floor routine at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Cheering from the audience was Nellie and Ronald along with Owens, who took time off training camp with his NFL team to support his wife.
bonjour 💋 pic.twitter.com/u8tzCwqqA6
— Simone Biles (@Simone_Biles) July 1, 2024
In an interview with People, Nellie shares that her daughter’s challenging experience in Tokyo makes her Paris Olympic showing even more exceptional: “To work through that and be in this place where she enjoys doing what she wants…this is rewriting her story. It’s rewriting it on her terms because she is in this place that she really perhaps wished she would have been for years.”
Meanwhile, speaking with Hoda Kotb of Today, Simone says Ronald and Nellie were “really excited” to again be cheering their daughter live from the stands.
“They missed Tokyo, so this was like a cherry on top for them. Paris is such a beautiful city, and seeing all the girls compete – and almost the same exact girls as in Tokyo – so they were just, like, ecstatic.”
Then, in the August 6 interview, Kotb asks Simone, “if you had to answer this question: ‘If not for blank, I would not be here today.’ If not for blank … who’s that person?”
Without skipping a beat, Simone replies: “If not for my parents and adoption, I wouldn’t be here today.”
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Also, make sure you congratulate the athlete on her tremendous accomplishments at the 2024 Paris Olympics!