"They focused on my hair, they focused on how big my legs were" - When Simone Biles opened up about overcoming rude comments as a young gymnast

In 2020, seven-time Olympic gymnast Simone Biles opened up about facing rude comments at the start of her professional career. The gymnast experienced the wrath of media criticism for the way she looked, but never failed to embrace herself and eventually overcame it.

Simone Biles is undoubtedly one of the greatest gymnasts of all time. However, she also had her share of insecurities that were highlighted by the media. On several occasions, the gymnast was compared with the unreasonable beauty standards and body expectations set by the media.

Simone Biles at the Previews - 2023 FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships

During an interview with Vogue in 2020, the gymnast talked about the rude comments she received early in her career, sharing people’s hurtful comments:

“They focused on my hair. They focused on how big my legs were. But God made me this way, and I feel like if I didn’t have these legs or these calves, I wouldn’t be able to tumble as high as I can and have all of these moves named after me.”

The Olympic gymnast stated that she accepted herself for the way she looked because it was her body that allowed her to showcase impeccable gymnastics brilliance to the world.

Furthermore, Simone Biles shared her take on being one of the few Black gymnasts at the start of her career and expressed how she was inspired by legendary gymnast Gabby Douglas to perform her best at championships:

“Growing up, I didn’t see very many Black gymnasts,” she said.

She added:

“So whenever I did, I felt really inspired to go out there and want to be as good as them. I remember watching Gabby Douglas win the 2012 Olympics, and I was like, If she can do it, I can do it.”

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Simone Biles was body-shamed by a coach in 2013

Biles at Artistic Gymnastics World Championships Belgium 2013 - Day Five

In her book, Courages to Soar: A Body in Motion, A Life in Balance, Simone Biles mentioned an incident from a competition in 2013 where she was shocked to the core by getting body-shamed.

During an interview with Hoda Kotb on Today Show, Biles talked about the incident when the host quoted it from her book:

"You overheard a coach say, 'You know why she crashed? Because she’s too fat—that’s why. How does she expect to compete like that?'"

Biles revealed that she could not take the comment and ran behind the curtains. After some time, the national team coordinator came to her and consoled her with a pep talk. She made the gymnast understand that it was important that she worked on herself and the results prove others wrong.

The talk calmed Biles to a great extent. Later on, she trained and became the greatest gymnast of all time.