$imoney (usagym.org, 13 Jun 2012)

Athlete

Husband Jonathan Owens

English

World Champions Centre: Spring, TX, USA

Laurent Landi [personal], FRA, from 2017; Cecile Landi [personal], FRA, from 2017

Her husband Jonathan Owens has played American football in the NFL for the Arizona Cardinals, Houston Texans and Green Bay Packers. (Instagram profile, 17 Sep 2023; Jonathan Owens Instagram profile, 05 Feb 2021)

In November 2018, despite suffering with a kidney stone, she won six medals at the 2018 World Championships in Doha, Qatar. The previous month she had competed with a broken toe at the US selection camp for the tournament. (bbc.co.uk, 03 Nov 2018; theroot.com, 15 Oct 2018; Twitter profile, 13 Oct 2018)

She suffered an injury to her right shoulder in early 2014 that was aggravated during a training session with the US national team. She had to withdraw from the American Cup in March 2014 and the Pacific Rim Championships the following month due to the injury. She returned to competition in August 2014. (blog.chron.com, 27 Feb 2014; teamusa.org, 03 Aug 2014; universalsports.com, 02 Aug 2014; youtube.com, 05 Jan 2015)

She underwent surgery in October 2013 to have a bone spur removed from the bottom of her right tibia. She was sidelined for three weeks following the operation. (olympictalk.nbcsports.com, 01 Aug 2014; gymnastike.org, 15 Oct 2013)

She first tried the sport at age six while on a daycare field trip to Bannon's Gymnastix in Houston, TX, United States of America.

While visiting a gym with her daycare centre she was noticed by a coach. "While there I imitated the other gymnasts, and the coach noticed. The gym sent home a letter requesting that I join tumbling or gymnastics."

After claiming a bronze medal on the beam at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, she tied Shannon Miller on seven overall Olympic medals, the record for a United States of America gymnast. (SportsDeskOnline, 01 Sep 2021; gymnastics.sport, 03 Aug 2021)

In 2019 she became the first US female artistic gymnast, and second female artistic gymnast from any nation, to win five gold medals at a single edition of the world championships. As of the 2021 edition of the tournament, she holds the record for most gold medals [19] and most overall medals [25] won by an artistic gymnast of either gender at the world championships. (SportsDeskOnline, 271 Mar 2022; espn.co.uk, 13 Oct 2019; bbc.co.uk, 03 Nov 2018; usagym.org, 17 Oct 2018)

She equalled the record for most gold medals won by a female artistic gymnast at a single edition of the Olympic Games by claiming four gold medals at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro. She was the fifth artistic gymnast to have achieved the feat. (usagym.org, 17 Oct 2018; SportsDeskOnline, 17 Oct 2018)

"Let your faith be bigger than your fears." (Twitter profile, 30 May 2015)

In 2022 she was presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom in the United States of America. (harpersbazaar.com, 08 Jul 2022)

She received the 2021 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Lifetime Achievement award. (bbc.co.uk, 18 Dec 2021)

She was named the 2019 Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year. (apnews.com, 26 Dec 2019)

In 2018 she was named ESPN Magazine's Most Dominant Athlete of the Year. (olympics.nbcsports.com, 11 Dec 2018)

She was named Best Female Athlete at the 2017 Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly [ESPY] Awards in the United States of America. (people.com, 12 Jul 2017)

At the 2017 and 2019 Laureus Awards she was named Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year. (bbc.co.uk, 18 Feb 2019; 14 Feb 2017)

She was named the 2016 Female Athlete of the Year by the United States Sports Academy. (fis-ski.com, 26 Jan 2017)

She was named Best Female Athlete of 2016 by the International Sports Press Association [AIPS]. For the same year she was also named Associated Press Athlete of the Year and received the Champion of Champions award from the French sports newspaper L'Equipe. (fig-gymnastics.com, 04 Jan 2017)

She was the US flag bearer at the closing ceremony of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. (usatoday.com, 22 Aug 2016)

She was named the 2015 Female Olympic Athlete of the Year by the United States Olympic Committee [USOC]. (olympics.nbcsports.com, 11 Dec 2015)

SECOND BREAK AND RETURN
She took a two-year break from competitive gymnastics after struggling with mental health concerns at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. "When the twisties [phenomenon where gymnasts lose their sense of spatial awareness during skills or routines] happen, you go right into the gym and work on it. I took over a year off and then came back. So, I was petrified." She returned to competition at the 2023 US Classic in Hoffman Estates, IL, United States of America, where she claimed the women's floor, balance beam, and all-around titles. "I feel really good about where I am right now, mentally and physically. I still think there are some things to work on in my routines, but for the first meet back, I would say it went pretty well. I'm very shocked. Surprised." (cnn.com, 27 Aug 2023; theguardian.com, 04 Aug 2023, 06 Aug 2023; bbc.com, 28 Jun 2023)

TOKYO STRENGTH
At the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo she withdrew from all her individual finals apart from the balance beam. She had earlier withdrawn from the team final partway through citing mental health concerns. "My perspective has never changed so quickly from wanting to be on a podium to wanting to be able to go home, by myself, without any crutches. If I still had my air awareness, and I just was having a bad day, I would have continued. But it was more than that. Mentally I still have a lot of things that I have to work on but to bring the topic of conversation on mental health to light means the world to me. People have to realise that at the end of the day we're humans, we're not just entertainment." (thecut.com, 27 Sep 2021; reuters.com, 08 Aug 2021)

HIATUS
In November 2016 she announced that she would be taking a break from competitive gymnastics. She made the announcement while promoting her book, 'Courage to Soar'. "I am going to take some time off from the gym, just so that I can go out, have fun and really just embrace the moment that we have. Especially vacation, because I couldn't do that before with how much I trained. I was always in the gym. I think my body needs a rest. It is breaking down on me for a little bit." After undertaking promotional activities and appearing on US dance competition TV show 'Dancing with the Stars', she decided to start training again in November 2017 with coach Laurent Landi. She returned to competition at the US Classic in July 2018. (usatoday.com, 01 Nov 2017; flogymnastics.com, 17 Oct 2017; nbcsports.com, 18 Nov 2016; usatoday.com, 28 Jul 2018)

NAMED ELEMENTS
In December 2018 the International Gymnastics Federation [FIG] entered a vault element named the 'Biles' into the Code of Points. She first performed the element at the 2018 World Championships in Doha, Qatar. It involves a round off flic-flac with half turn [180°] on to a stretched salto forward with two/one turn [720°] off. She has a further three elements named after her in the Code of Points. (espn.co.uk, 13 Oct 2019; gymnastics.sport, 21 Dec 2018)