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Simone Biles

Simone Manuel, Simone Biles
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Simone Manuel dresses as Simone Biles for Halloween

By OlympicTalkNov 1, 2019, 8:28 AM EDT
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Simone Manuel dressed for Halloween as a fellow Texan, fellow Olympic gold medalist and fellow Simone. That would be Simone Biles.

Manuel unveiled the costume Thursday night on social media, donning a red and blue leotard that closely matches the one worn by Biles and her countrywomen in the team final at the recent world championships in Stuttgart, Germany.

Manuel wasn’t done. She then posted a video of her doing a pair of cartwheels in the costume.

“I’m better at flips in the pool than I am on land,” was tweeted from her account.

Manuel and Biles should be among the busiest U.S. athletes at the Tokyo Games, should they qualify.

Manuel, after earning four golds and three silvers at this past summer’s world championships, could swim in as many as six Olympic events.

Biles just became the first gymnast to win five gold medals at a single worlds since 1958.

A tale of the tape between Manuel and Biles:

Simone Manuel Simone Biles
Hometown Sugar Land, Texas Spring, Texas
Height 5’10” 4’8″
Olympic Debut 2016 2016
Olympic Medals 4 in Swimming 5 in Gymnastics
World Championships Debut 2013 2013
World Titles Since Rio 9 9
Pets Snails Dogs

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Simone Biles flips, twists, throws first pitch at World Series Game 2

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By OlympicTalkOct 23, 2019, 8:01 PM EDT
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Simone Biles showed off the talent that’s earned her 25 world gymnastics championships medals, backflipping (with a twist) before throwing the ceremonial first pitch before Game 2 of the World Series between the Houston Astros and Washington Nationals on Wednesday night.

“Gymnastics is the only sport I’ve ever done, so when it comes to anything else, I’m literally terrified,” she said before the pitch. “So I get more nervous doing this stuff than competing, which is really weird. So, yeah, hopefully I don’t end up on celebrity fails.”

Biles was born in Columbus but moved to Texas at age 3 and was raised in the Houston suburb of Spring. She still lives and trains in the Houston area.

Biles previously threw an acrobatic first pitch at an Astros game in July 2016, one month before she won four gold medals at the Rio Olympics.

Also Wednesday, Marlen Esparza, a Houston native who in 2012 became the first U.S. Olympic women’s boxing medalist, was scheduled to call “Play Ball!” before the game.

Other Olympians could be in the running for World Series appearances. Swimming gold medalists Simone Manuel and Katie Ledecky are from the Houston and D.C. areas, respectively.

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MORE: Simone Biles reveals one thing she can’t do: wear all medals at once

Simone Biles reveals one thing she cannot do: Wear all her medals at once

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By Beau DureOct 16, 2019, 8:17 AM EDT
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Three days after raising the record for world championship medals to 25, Simone Biles said her career total is a bit too much to wear at once.

“I’ve worn all five of them (from one world championship) for one time, but they’re pretty heavy, so I can’t imagine 25,” Biles said Wednesday on the “Today” show.

MORE: Mother and daughter share world championship experience

Last week, Biles became the first gymnast to win five gold medals at the world championships. She and her teammates ran away with the team gold, and she won the all-around by a staggering 2.1 points. She then won the vault, balance beam and floor exercise. Only a fifth-place finish in the uneven bars kept her from a sweep.

One event that stood out for her was the ever-challenging balance beam.

“Out of all of my performances this past week, the beam performance was one of my favorites, because I did it exactly like practice, and that’s what I’ve been training to do,” Biles said. “So it definitely helped my confidence.”

GYM WORLDS: Finals Results

Biles had her breakout performance at age 18, her first year in senior competition, in the 2013 world championships with a four-medal performance, including gold in the all-around and floor exercise. In 2014, she won those events again, along with the team event and the balance beam, and added a fifth medal on the vault. She matched that performance in 2015, then switched the vault and beam in her four-gold, five-medal performance in the 2016 Olympics.

After a post-Olympic break, she returned for the 2018 world championships to win medals in all six events, including four golds and a silver on the uneven bars, historically her least successful event.

She didn’t win six medals this year, but she took five golds for the first time. This year’s championships are also special because they’re almost certainly her last, with next year’s Olympics expected to be her last major competition.

Given all that, she’ll make more of an effort to go back and watch what she did.

“Most of the time I don’t want to see it, but this world championships was one of the best out of all five of them, so I definitely wanted to see my performances, so afterward, I would go and try to find it with my coach,” Biles said.

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