June 2022 Nonconformist of the Month – Simone Biles

In the summer of 2021, the world watched in puzzlement as Simone Biles, the world’s most-decorated gymnast, pulled herself out of competition during the Olympic Games.  Her reason at the time was simply to focus on her mental health.  It was later explained that she was experiencing a phenomenon known as “the twisties” which causes a gymnast to lose their sense of position in the air and can be quite dangerous.  One wrong landing could result in severe injury or death.  Although she garnered a lot of public support, she also received a lot of criticism for her decision, which she faced with strength and professionalism.  When she did return to Olympic competition, she chose to continue to care for her safety by greatly reducing the difficulty of the skills she usually performs.

If this isn’t reason enough for her to be considered a nonconformist, lets look at other reasons.  Simone was placed in foster care at a young age due to her mother being unable to care for her and her siblings.  Her grandparents became her foster parents and eventually adopted her.  Looking for an outlet for her high level of energy, her grandparents enrolled her in gymnastics at age 6.  She excelled at it and was promoted to classes with higher levels of difficulty, so much so that she started being home-schooled due to the amount of time she spent training. 

She eventually competed at the national level and then competed in the 2016 Olympic Games where she won four gold, one silver, and two bronze medals.  She was chosen as the flag bearer for the U.S. Team.  She was then chosen for the 2020 Olympic team, but due to the pandemic, the games were delayed until summer 2021.  Meanwhile, Simone found alternative ways to practice and exercise, because the gym she utilized was also closed during that time. 

During her career, Simone has taken many risks with the skills she has chosen to perform.  The moves she created, and which bear her name, are of such high difficulty, that the gymnastics grading system can’t fully account for them.  She has performed a namesake move on both the vault and the balance beam and has performed two namesake moves on the floor.  One of them, the Biles II (also known as the triple-double), is the only skill rated with a difficulty score of J.  Simone has been the only female gymnast to land this skill in competition and has done it consistently.  The difficulty of her skills as well as her performance of them (the precision of execution and the height to which she jumps) are unsurpassed.  Her abilities and her status as most-decorated gymnast in history has earned her the nickname “GOAT” or Greatest of all Time.

As if that is still not enough reason to name her as this month’s nonconformist, let’s look at her courage.  I am not talking about her courage in competition, although there is plenty of that.  I’m talking about having the courage to speak out against the gymnastics physician, whom I will not name, and exposed years of sexual abuse he perpetrated on her and many other gymnasts.  Not only did this expose the doctor, but it exposed a cover-up by the gymnastics organization.  Her testimony, and that of other gymnasts, resulted in a prison sentence for the doctor and sweeping changes in the gymnastics organization.

Simone Biles overcame adversity at a young age.  She has been a trail-blazer for athletes and for women.  She has achieved great success, which she navigates gracefully and with humility.  She has spoken out for women and for mental health issues.  She set an example for us all when she chose to put winning aside in order to ensure her own safety and well-being.  For these reasons, Simone Biles (the GOAT) is the June 2022 nonconformist of the month.