Simply The Best

Simone Biles is being hailed as the greatest gymnast ever – at only 19! Her journey from troubled childhood to Olympic triumph is an inspiration.

- Jane Vorster

WHEN she jumps she soars as high as the top of a basket ball hoop. Perched atop a balance beam, she does stunts that other gymnasts wouldn’t even consider doing on the floor. The world has never seen anything quite like her – if you didn’t know better you’d wonder if Simone Biles had wire springs hidden under her feet or invisible ropes hoisting her up to allow her to perform the gravity-defying manoeuvres.

At 1,42 m (4 ft 8 in) the nimble gymnast is by far the shortest athlete in America’s 554-member Olympic squad. But unlike many of her willowy rivals, every gram of her compact frame seems to be pure muscle, making her appear superhuman.

For the past few years Simone (19) has totally dominated the sport, winning three consecutive World Championships. And now, after her mesmerising performances in Rio, she’s being hailed as the greatest gymnast of all time. What Usain Bolt is to athletics and Serena Williams is to tennis, Simone Biles is to gymnastics.

At the time of going to print she’d won three gold medals (in the women’s team all-around event, the women’s individual all-around and the women’s vault). A near fall saw her miss gold in the women’s beam event (she took bronze) and she was still due to take part in the women’s floor event. Pretty incredible, considering it was her first Olympics.

“She may be the most talented gymnast I’ve ever seen in my life, honestly,” former American champion Mary Lou Retton says. “And I don’t think she’s even tapped into what she really can do. I think she’s unbeatable.”

Not since Romanian champion Nadia Comaneci’s three-medal haul and the world’s first perfect 10 (in the uneven bars) at the 1976 Montreal Olympics has a gymnast caused such a stir.