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U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Team Makes Major Simone Biles Announcement

Originally posted on Athlon Sports
By Michael P. Gallagher | Last updated Apr 21, 2025 8:27 PM ET

It’s tough to find a professional athlete that had a better 2024 than USA Olympic gymnast Simone Biles.

The 28-year-old bounced back from a forgettable performance at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, in which she took silver in the team event and bronze in the balance beam before withdrawing from the vault and floor competitions after experiencing a case of “the twisties,” a psychological phenomenon where gymnasts have difficulty with timing and awareness while performing moves that involve twists, to add four more medals to her trophy case.

Biles won gold in the team, all-round, and vault competitions, and silver in the floor exercise to not only bring her self-proclaimed “redemption tour” full-circle, but she also ran her Olympic medal total to 11 and her gold medal count to seven, both good for the second-most all-time among female gymnasts behind Russia’s Larisa Latynina, who has 18 and nine, respectively.

Because of her dominant run in the 2024 Paris Olympics, Biles was honored on Monday as the winner of the 2025 Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year, as announced by Team USA and Laureus Sports.

“There’s only one @Simone_Biles. The 11x Olympic medalist is the #Laureus25 World Sportswoman of the Year!” the @TeamUSA X account posted.

There’s only one @Simone_Biles.

The 11x Olympic medalist is the #Laureus25 World Sportswoman of the Year! pic.twitter.com/MnFamYXNQ3
— Team USA (@TeamUSA) April 21, 2025

“Whenever I was younger and I started gymnastics, I always wanted to change the sport and just progress it and inspire the younger generations, so I feel like my job has done just that with the amount of time I spent on an Olympic and world stage,” Biles said during her acceptance speech.

It’s the fourth time that Biles has won the award (2017, 2019, and 2020), tying her with Serena Williams for the most wins in the award’s history. Biles is also the first athlete to win the award in back-to-back years.

“Coming out here and winning a Laureus Award, I feel like is the most prestigious, athletic achievement that you can win,” Biles added during a press conference after the award ceremony. “So it's really exciting it puts gymnastics on the map in a non-Olympic year, so hopefully we can keep doing that."

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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