"You can’t touch the check or you’ll be NCAA ineligible"- When Simone Biles opened up about coach's words after incident risking her college career

Simone Biles once opened up about a hilarious moment that nearly risked her future in collegiate gymnastics. So far in her illustrious career, Biles has bagged 11 Olympic and 30 World Championship medals.

In her autobiography "Courage to Soar: A Body in Motion, A Life in Balance", Biles reflected on the moment that almost risked her collegiate gymnastics. At the Houston National Invitational in 2010, Biles won a prize of $5,000. After being warned by her coach Aimee Boorman, that accepting money could make her NCAA ineligible, Biles took the rule very literally.

Later, when a photographer asked the gymnast to pose with the big cardboard check, Biles refused to touch it, thinking it would affect her eligibility. Only when her father Ronald explained that the check was just a copy and not the real one, Biles posed with it.

"That check was as tall as I was, and when they brought it over, Aimee stepped in and took it. 'Let me hold this for you,' she said. “You can’t touch the check or you’ll be NCAA ineligible.” She explained that my winnings would have to go to my gym program instead of to me as an individual, because once athletes accepted money for their performance, it meant they’d turned pro and could not compete in college," Biles wrote.

"Sponsors wanted me now" - When Simone Biles opened up on turning pro over collegiate gymnastics

Simone Biles of Team United States at the Olympic Games in Paris, France. (Photo by Getty Images)

After her 2013 and 2014 victorious streak at the World Championships, Simone Biles had to chose between her Olympic dream or competing in collegiate gymnastics. In her autobiography "Courage to Soar" published in 2016, Biles stated her view that given the demanding nature of the sport, most female gymnast only compete once at the Olympic Games, which led her to turn pro.

"I played with the idea of turning pro when I was done with college, but I knew the timing wouldn’t work," she wrote. "Sponsors wanted me now, in the run up to the 2016 Olympics in Rio. Turning pro in advance of Rio was the sure thing. I’d be twenty-three when the Olympics came back around in 2020. There was no way to know if I’d still be at the top of my game. Gymnastics wasn’t like soccer or swimming or track and field, where athletes could qualify multiple times. Most female gymnasts only go to the Olympics once."

Simone Biles verbally committed to the UCLA Bruins gymnastics in 2014 but deferred to enrol till the Olympic Games.