Simone Biles made a surprising admission to a fan on social media after she became the most decorated gymnast of all time.
On Friday, the superstar gymnast, 26, won her sixth all-around world championship gold, and grabbed the record for most international gymnastics medals in the history of the sport. Then again on Sunday she claimed three more awards as the 2023 world championships wrapped up. She now has 37 medals across the world championships and Olympics.
On Sunday, one of Biles’ fans posted a thought that inspired the gymnast to open up to her fans. “Remember like five months ago we didn’t think Simone would ever compete again,” a user named Grace wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Biles saw the post, shared it, and added a handful of teary-eyed emojis. She wrote, “real talk I didn’t think so either,” in her post on Sunday morning.
Biles returned to gymnastics earlier this year following a two-year break, during which she tied the knot with her husband, NFL player Jonathan Owens.
The couple wed in April in a courthouse ceremony before celebrating with a second wedding ceremony in Cabo San Lucas where they were joined by 140 of their nearest and dearest.
In August, Biles told PEOPLE that she was nervous about getting back into competing, despite having seven Olympic medals under her belt. “I feel like in the very beginning I was very nervous, obviously to step back out there because a lot of athletes when they take a couple years off, you have a little bit of doubt if you’re going to even be the same athlete you were, how strong you were going to be,” she said.
“So classic, I kind of tiptoed my way in there, just tried to get the meet done and over with, kind of make sure I still had that confidence and that belief in myself.”
Owen, 28, celebrated his wife’s historic accomplishment in a post on social media over the weekend. “You deserve it, just getting rewarded for all your dedication and hard work,” Owens wrote on X. “Blessed to be able to witness the greatness first hand. I love you so much, I’m so happy for you baby.”
During the medal ceremony, in which Rebeca Andrade took silver and the United States’ Shilese Jones took bronze, Biles dabbed back tears.
“I was emotional because it was my first worlds here, 10 years ago, and then now my sixth one, so it’s crazy,” she said in an interview following the competition on the Peacock broadcast. “But I swear, I do have something in my eye that’s been bothering me for like four hours and I cannot get it out.”
