On Tuesday, July 30, following her historic victory at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Simone Biles posted an Instagram story of Ronald Biles watching her participate.
Simone remarks, “My dad and his binoculars are so freaking cute,” about her biological grandfather, who, along with his wife, adopted the eight-time Olympic medalist after placing her in foster care when she was three years old.
The most decorated American gymnast, Simone, revealed details about her upbringing, including how her biological mother, who was “struggling with drug and alcohol abuse,” starved her and her brothers. Continue reading to learn about this inspirational athlete!
Simone Biles, 26, was up in foster care with her three siblings, Adria, Tevin, and Ashley.
Shanon, Simone’s biological mother, was unable to care for her four children due to her alcohol and drug addiction.
“It was difficult to give up my children, but I had to do what I had to because I couldn’t care for them,” Shanon told the Daily Mail, adding that the children’s father, who is also an addict, was missing.
Simone spoke openly to CNN about her childhood experiences and the “hardships” she had with her addict mother.
“When my brothers and I went into foster care, our biological mother was dealing with drug and alcohol misuse. “I was three years old,” she told CNN.
Even two decades later, she vividly remembers hunger.
Throughout the video, she reminisces about our hunger as children and recalls a cat who fed us but didn’t share our affection. “Fortunately, we were able to stay together in one foster home…”It was some of the most enjoyable times ever. “We were just so excited.”
Her grandparents, Ronald and Nellie Biles, who adopted Simone (then six), and her younger sister, Adria, who is now 24, paid regular visits, which added to the excitement.
“I wanted to take care of Adria because she was the baby,” Simone explained in her Facebook Watch series, Simone vs. Herself. “I just felt like I needed to look out for her, because if family doesn’t look out for you, who’s going to?”
Ronald’s sister adopted Tevin and Ashley and reared them in Cleveland, Ohio.
“I never, ever thought about gymnastics as a sport to put Simone in; that never entered my mind,” says Nellie, her adoptive daughter, in Simone Against Herself. “I recall a field trip, but the rain prevented them from going to the farm or any other planned destination, leading them instead to Bannon’s gymnastics.”
Simone confirms her mother’s memories and tells her followers that her first exposure to gymnastics was in “daycare on a school trip.”
“I don’t ever remember watching it on TV or seeing pictures in a magazine,” adds the athlete, who learned by “imitating” other females.
Since then, Nellie and Ronald have attended every gathering, watching Simone destroy the competition.
Simone explained that she has a “bad habit” of looking for her greatest supporters in the audience and would be “kind of nervous” to compete without her parents’ presence.
“I don’t feel settled and secure until I know where they are in the crowd. I just get so anxious, and seeing them in the arena calms me down.
I’d want to express my gratitude to my parents for making sacrifices from the beginning to allow me to pursue my dreams. But most importantly, thank you for always being there for me through all of my highs and lows. You are the absolute finest. I adore your image.
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The 2021 Tokyo Olympics, closed to fans due to COVID-19 rules, was the only competition the Biles pair missed. Simone eventually withdrew from the women’s team final and “four subsequent individual finals to prioritize her health as she dealt with a case of what gymnasts call the ‘twisties,’ where the body and mind fall out of sync.”
Dad has his binoculars.
Simone’s husband, Jonathan Owens, a football player who took time off training camp with the Chicago Bears to support his wife, joined Ronald and Nellie in cheering on Simone and Team USA at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
“It doesn’t matter where we are or what competition we’re in; she knows where we sit,” the pleased Nellie says in a Facebook video. “She can hear me; I know because I scream so loud,” she says.
Simone, scanning the Bercy Arena in Paris for her parents, saw Owens, wearing a bright t-shirt with photographs of his wife, sitting next to Nellie, who was smiling broadly, and her father, whose face was obscured by binoculars used to watch his daughter.
“It gives them love and support, which is what these kids need, so having that one constant means the world to them,” the group’s ardent supporter told CNN.
