10 Biggest Reveals About Simone Biles From Her New Documentary Series

Netflix’s docuseries Simone Biles: Rising follows the gymnast as she mentally and physically prepares for an Olympic return following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games while revealing information about how the unexpected turn of events that year affected her. While in Tokyo, Biles famously pulled out of the competition. What followed was a slew of online hate as many felt Biles was abandoning her team. As much as conversations got to her, Biles found motivation in the words of Maya Angelou’s And Still I Rise — a phrase she has tattooed on her.

After taking some time to care for herself and finding the strength to compete again, Biles will compete at the 2024 Paris Olympics. With more episodes of Simone Biles: Rising expected this fall, the first two episodes already provide an intimate look at the life of the most decorated gymnast. Through interviews with her family, teammates, and Biles herself, the docuseries is a vulnerable look at how conversations about her — both positive and negative — impact her everyday life.

10 Simone Had A Bad Feeling About Tokyo

Before the Olympic Games, Simone felt something would go wrong.

Simone Biles: Rising begins as the gymnast says she naturally has a strong intuition about things, and before the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, she had a bad feeling. During a less-than-perfect warm-up on the vault, it was clear to both Biles and her coaches that something was wrong. The term used in gymnastics for what Biles was experiencing is “the twisties,” which is when a gymnast’s mind and body disconnect, causing errors in their performance. With her safety in mind, Biles withdrew from the competition.

Before heading to Tokyo, Biles was receiving an insurmountable amount of praise, with others labeling her as the greatest gymnast of all time. However, even though she was recognized as being at the top of her league, people were still expecting Biles to perform higher with each competition. Such pressure from the outside, on top of suppressed trauma from abuse by figures in gymnastics, caused Biles to become distracted, thus putting a momentary pause on competing.

9 Simone Was Compared To Former Gymnast Kerri Strug

Online discourse made Biles feel as though she should’ve kept competing.

The pressure put on gymnasts is discussed thoroughly throughout Simone Biles: Rising. Journalists, Olympic commentators, and former Olympic gymnasts reflect on the old standard in which gymnasts were told to compete regardless of any mental or physical roadblocks. Biles’ case of the twisties and her subsequent withdrawal reminded many people of the 1996 Summer Olympics in which U.S. gymnast Kerri Strug earned a gold medal despite an ankle injury.

Simone Biles: Rising includes footage from 1996, showing Strug limping after her first vault, and falling to her knees, unable to walk, after her second. Conversations about Strug’s perseverance made many people question why Biles was unable to stay in the competition like Strug did. However, others countered such claims by saying Strug wasn’t given the option to withdraw, and she shouldn’t have been allowed to compete with an injury in the first place.

8 A Fifth Gymnastics Element Was Named After Simone

While filming, Biles earned another skill named after her.

Throughout her gymnastics career, Biles has been known for performing some of the most difficult gymnastics elements on vault, balance beam, and floor exercises. Biles has a few eponymous skills and while filming Simone Biles: Rising, a fifth skill was added to the list. In Tokyo, Biles was set to perform a particular Yurchenko vault that hadn’t been competed by a female gymnast before.

However, her early withdrawal meant she was unable to do so. It wasn’t until a few years later when Biles was at the 2023 World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium, that the gymnast finally performed the vault, earning the name Biles II. Cameras were present with Biles in Belgium, getting an exclusive insight into her mixed emotions. Before this, Biles was apprehensive about competing again. Nerves surrounded the gymnast as she was reminded of her vault in 2021, but she pushed through and landed on her feet.

7 A Closet In Simone’s Home Has Olympics Memorabilia

Items from the 2020 Summer Olympics are kept in a closet.

In Simone Biles: Rising, Biles allowed cameras into her home and showed off a closet dedicated to items from the 2020 Summer Olympics. From her leotard to her plane ticket to Tokyo, the closet is a reminder of the excitement and eventual chaos surrounding the Games. Biles confesses in Simone Biles: Rising that the items, especially the leotard, are still a bit difficult to look through. Biles is vulnerable and shares that she used to sit in the room where the closet is located and cry over the events that transpired.

For as much heartbreak and pain as there is surrounding the Games, Biles is also sure to let audiences know she now has a healthier relationship with gymnastics. In the time between 2021 and her preparation for Paris 2024, Biles spent time building her home and hanging out with her loved ones. Biles said she needed to remind herself that she cannot be consumed by gymnastics all the time, and she needed to step away from the sport to find her love for it again.

6 Younger Gymnasts Helped Biles’ Recovery

The encouraging words of others gave her strength to keep going.

It took some time for Biles to get fully back into the swing of things, as she and her coaches admit in Simone Biles: Rising. Biles occasionally stepped into the gym a few times a month, but only to be comfortable performing various gymnastics skills again. However, Biles says the other girls at the World Champions Centre were a big part of why she decided to commit to her return.

Just as she is for fans watching the Olympics at home, Biles is an inspiration for many of her fellow gymnasts. Biles was defeated in her early months back at the gym, but when other gymnasts asked her to keep coming back, she felt compelled to do so. Their words of encouragement helped Biles work to better herself mentally and physically retrain her body. In speaking of the girls at her gym, Biles says, “I wanted to quit like 500,000 times. And I would have if it weren’t for them.”

Black gymnasts’ skills are overshadowed at times by complaints about their looks.

In addition to comments deeming Biles a quitter after the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, others expressed their dislike of her hairstyles during competitions. The comments about Biles’ hair have been around for quite some time, and are a common experience for many Black Olympians. Two former gymnasts, Dominique Dawes and Betty Okino, are featured in Simone Biles: Rising and detail their experiences with comments surrounding their visual presentation. Just as Biles had been told, Dawes and Okino received complaints about their body type and style of hair.

The hairstyle often associated with Olympic winners, as described by individuals in Simone Biles: Rising, is a smooth ponytail, particularly those belonging to white gymnasts. Therefore, when Black gymnasts earn medals for their accomplishments, much of the discourse surrounding the gymnasts is about their appearance. Gabby Douglas is used as an example in Simone Biles: Rising. After becoming the first Black gymnast to win an individual all-around gold medal in London 2012, a large portion of the internet began critiquing her hair.

4 Simone Was A Fan Of Aly Raisman

Before becoming friends, Biles looked up to Raisman.

Another former gymnast featured in Simone Biles: Rising is Aly Raisman. In addition to interviews with Raisman, the docuseries also provides an endearing look into her friendship with Biles. During the portion of the episode, Biles shares that she was a fan of Raisman before competing alongside her at the Olympics, saying she has a few autographs from her dating back to 2012. At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, the two gymnasts were part of the Final Five. From that point, the two formed a close bond, as Raisman says Biles balances out her tendency for perfection.

Since 2016, Biles and Raisman’s connection remains close and Raisman compares their relationship to that of sisters — bickering and supporting one another just as a related duo would. During Simone Biles: Rising, the women are getting ready together and share a fun anecdote about a time they shared a hotel room. It’s something they said they can’t do anymore because they’re complete opposites when it comes to keeping things clean and organized.

3 Simone Traveled To Wisconsin During Her Off-Season

When she wasn’t training, Biles supported her husband at his football games.

One of the individuals who has been a big part of Biles’ healing journey is her husband, Jonathan Owens. As a professional football player, the beginning of Owens and Biles’ relationship saw the former playing for the Green Bay Packers. Therefore, during her off-season, Biles spent much of her time traveling to Green Bay, Wisconsin to support Owens at games. The break from gymnastics is needed for Biles, but the trips to Wisconsin are still something she jokes she’d never imagined she’d do.

Owens, who is now signed with the Chicago Bears, also encouraged her during some of her darkest days post-2020 Summer Olympics. Owens shared encouraging messages reminding Biles that for her to grow, she has to work through obstacles. Now, the couple helps one another prioritize their mental and physical health above all else as they deal with expectations from others in their respective sports.

2 Simone Was Adopted By Her Grandparents

Biles and her younger sister were in foster care together.

After Biles and her siblings were put into foster care at a young age, her maternal grandfather adopted two of the children. The older children were adopted by an aunt, but Biles and her younger sister, Adria, lived with their grandparents. Despite the hardships and uncertainties faced as a young child, Biles carries her past with her. Biles feels it’s important to break barriers and defy the odds associated with children who are placed in the foster care system.

Adria is included in Simone Biles: Rising and she teases her older sister for being bossy when they were kids. In hindsight, Adria recognizes it was just Biles being protective and seeing the need to look after her as if she were her own child. Both episodes of Simone Biles: Rising show how important family is to her. Old home videos and a scene in which her mom, Nellie, braids her hair, depict Biles as having a close relationship with her parents.

1 Karolyi Ranch Doesn’t Hold Fond Memories For Simone

Rigorous training methods were used by coaches.

Now permanently closed, Karolyi Ranch was a training center for USA Gymnastics. The training center was described by Raisman as a type-A environment where perfection was expected. Laughing and having fun with the sport weren’t allowed as the gymnasts were made to train in a strict and quiet environment. The coaching style of old gymnastics coaches Béla and Márta Károlyi was the foundation for the ranch. Their style included pushing gymnasts’ minds and bodies to a near-breaking point.

Biles details a specific incident in which she took a slight step forward when landing from a vault and coaches told her she was worthless to the team. Simone Biles: Rising continues conversations about conscious training in gymnastics that account for the athlete’s mental and physical health when former gymnasts reflect on the history of Karolyi Ranch. Many figures in gymnastics say that a healthier approach to coaching is coming to fruition, but there is progress to be made as some coaches still follow a similar approach to the Károlyi’s methods.