“It never gets old” - Simone Biles opens up about the rise in gymnastics amid winning awards and making the sport known worldwide

Simone Biles is the most decorated gymnast of all time. Over the course of her career, the American has won 30 World Championships and 11 Olympic medals. She has also won various accolades away from the gym, and she recently reflected on being recognized for her accomplishments and making the sport known worldwide.

In January 2025, Biles was named Sports Illustrated's Sportsperson of the Year for her incredible achievements at the 2024 Games, where she won four medals. Following this, on February 19, the gymnast was named Athlete of the Year at the Houston Sports Awards.

Additionally, Biles’ Paris Olympics victory in the individual all-around was also honoured as the ‘Moment of the Year’ at the Houston Sports Award. Recently, Simone Biles sat down with Fox 26 Houston for an interview, and discussed her achievements away from the gym, saying,

“It's always exciting to be recognized, especially to put gymnastics on the map in a non-Olympic year or even following an Olympic year. So I would say it never gets old, just because the sport of gymnastics is so unique and so beautiful, so I want to share that with everyone.”

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Simone Biles reflects on her ‘why’ for gymnastics

Biles at the Paris Olympics (Image Source: Getty)

Simone Biles first rose to fame in 2013, when she stormed to the all-around title at the Antwerp World Championships aged just 16. Since then, she has gone on to dominate the world of gymnastics for a little over a year now.

Speaking to Fox 26 Houston, Biles reflected on her ‘why’ in the sport, saying,

“My ‘why’ was to just really have fun, embrace it, see how far I could go and hopefully one day get a college scholarship. And then that evolved over the years as I started progressing through the sport pretty quickly, like ‘oh maybe one day I can go to the Olympics’. And then I was training with some girls that had gone to the World Championships and been on an Olympic team, so then that's kind of why it changed. But other than that it was really to always have fun, to embrace who I am, to be strong, to be beautiful and bold.

Over the past 12 years, Simone Biles has won 23 World Championships crowns and seven Olympic gold medals. Her career has also seen earn five eponymous moves, including the triple double on the floor and the Yurchenko double pike on the vault.