Simone Biles Shares Life Lessons in ELLE Spain May 2022, Lensed by JUANKR

Simone Biles Shares Life Lessons in ELLE Spain May 2022, Lensed by JUANKR

Simone Biles holds a combined total of 32 Olympic and World Championship medals, tied with Shannon Miller as the most decorated gymnast of all time. Biles and Miller are also tied for the most Olympic medals won by an American gymnast.

These feats don’t happen by accident. As a child, my mother would take us to her office to write down our short-term and long-term goals on a piece of paper. It is a practice that I maintain, because that list reminds me why I do things.”

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Simone Biles Finds 'A New High' in Porter Edit, Lensed by Kennedi Carter

Simone Biles Finds 'A New High' in Porter Edit, Lensed by Kennedi Carter

There are certain pleasures that come with writing/editing AOC. Checking Net-a-Porter today, an airborne Simone Biles greeted me in ‘A New High’ for the new Porter Edit February 7, 2022 cover story. AOC LOVES Simone Biles in every aspect of her wonderful self. Blessed with unusually strong intuition, I then said to myself “photographed by Kennedi Carter.” Correct, Anne.

Last summer Kennedi Carter photographed Amanda Gorman for Porter Edit, leading me to Google if Simone Biles and Amanda Gorman know each other, as it seems they would get on fabulously together. They do.

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Amanda Gorman's 'Call Us What We Carry', Simone Biles and Weight of Expectations

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Dec. 7, 2021 Publication Date for ‘Call Us What We Carry’ by Amanda Gorman

Amanda Gorman, featured this week’s cover story for Net-a-Porter, will release a book of poetry ‘Call Us What We Carry’ on December 7, 2021. The 80-page collection, formerly titled ‘The Hill We Climb and Other Poems’, will include her famed 2021 President Joe Biden inaugural poem, while exploring new themes of identity, grief, and memory.” According to the publisher Viking Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House, Gorman will narrate the audiobook, which will be published concurrently by Penguin Random House Audio.

The Lyrics of Hope

Gorman’s poetic elegance, rich with connection and insights into America’s deepest wounds and achievements, will continue to express itself in a hopeful way in ‘Call Us What We Carry’.

Gorman, who was appointed the first National Youth Poet Laureate in 2017 and was the United States’ youngest inaugural poet, said: “I wrote ‘Call Us What We Carry’ as a lyric of hope and healing. I wanted to pen a reckoning with the communal grief wrought by the pandemic. It’s been the hardest thing I’ve ever written, but I knew it had to be. For me, this book is a receptacle, a time capsule both made by and for its era. What is poetry if not a mirror for our present and a message for our future?”

In Monday’s Net-a-Porter interview, Amanda Gorman added energy and direct purpose to the definition of being a poet. “I often call it ‘poeting’ because, for me, it is to get involved in a movement. I think back to Audre Lorde, who was so wise in saying that it’s the poets who create a language for pains, emotions and solutions.”

Amanda Gorman and Simone Biles

It’s impossible for AOC not to reflect on Amanda Gorman and Simone Biles in the same thought bubble. Gorman spoke on Twitter to Tuesday’s news that The GOAT Simone Biles was dropping out of the team competition at the Tokyo Olympics, over mental health concerns.

Retweeting Meena Harris, Amanda rolled many current events related to Biles’ life into one analytical opinion, and we’ll leave the analysis on Gorman’s Twitter feed.

What is relevant to me about the two women’s mutual stardom is the incredible weight it puts on their shoulders as humans, as women, and as Black women who have avidly grabbed the torch of leadership in America.

I heard a Black woman host on MSNBC declare last week that Black women hold up half the world.

My response to her staggering mathematical hyperbole was to think of Simone Biles, one of several star Black women athletes cited by the host. The pressure on Biles and Gorman comes from people — and especially women — of every skin color. There are MANY white women who think the world of both young women. Of course Black women are especially proud and thrilled with their success. But it seems unwise to build such territorial walls around the best of humanity that a wide swath of humanity can’t celebrate them.

More Amanda Gorman and Simone Biles

An Injured Simone Biles Pulls Out of Team USA at Tokyo Olympics

Doug Mills/The New York Times

USA Gymnastics team powerhouse Simone Biles has pulled out of the team competition at the Tokyo Olympics. Biles bailed out of her Yurchenko vault with 2 1/2 twists, downsizing the difficulty to 1 1/2 twists and then stumbling out of the landing Tuesday evening.

Biles left the competition floor with a team trainer, while coach Cecile Landi, gathered the team. Biles returned to the floor, rejoining her teammates, hugging them before watching them perform their routines from the sideline.

Team USA will compete for their their consecutive Olympics gold medal without Biles. Follow all the Olympic competition from the New York Times.

Simone Biles Bends Excellence to Her Will in WSJ Magazine by Rahim Fortune

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Simone Biles Bends Excellence to Her Will in WSJ Magazine by Rahim Fortune AOC Fashion

At 4’8” tall, Simone Arianne Biles is called “the most powerful gymnast in history”, by WSJ Magazine. Biles is headed to the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo — the goddesses willing — where she will continue her head-spinning ascent in a sport where she already holds a combined total of 30 Olympic and World Championship medals.

Globally, Biles is widely considered to be among the greatest and most dominant female gymnasts of all time.

As WSJ Magazine’s August 2021 cover star, Biles is styled by Jessica Willis in luxury ready-to-wear looks from Chanel (cover), Del Core, Fendi, Jil Sander, Kwaidan Editions, Y/Project and more.  Austin, Texas born, New York-based photographer Rahim Fortune captures Biles in Houston. / Hair by Tylaria Thomas; makeup by Cinthia Moore

Louise Radnofsky interviews the superstar gymnast and activist about defying all expectations as she becomes even stronger after “surviving abuse, enduring a family ordeal and overcoming her own doubts.”

AOC shares the interview highlights.

Related:

Simone Biles Claims Her GOAT Title in Gymnastics, Leaves NIKE for Athleta

Simone Biles Claims Her GOAT Title in Gymnastics, Leaves NIKE for Athleta AOC Living

"The idea was to hit back at the haters," she told the outlet. "[The haters] were joking like, 'I swear, if she put a goat on her leo, blah, blah, blah.' That would make them so angry. And then I was like, 'Oh, that's actually a good idea.' And so that's exactly what we did and why we did it."

Simone Biles may be 4’10” in stature, but she packs a power punch twice her size. In late April, the platinum athlete ended her six-year relationship with Nike to join Athleta, Gap’s female-focused activewear brand.

The GOAT gymnast did not directly criticize Nike in announcing her move to Athleta — even though the company has a rocky relationship with female athletes.

“I felt like it wasn’t just about my achievements, it’s what I stood for and how they were going to help me use my voice and also be a voice for females and kids,” she said. “I feel like they also support me, not just as an athlete, but just as an individual outside of the gym and the change that I want to create, which is so refreshing.”

Simone Biles delivered an astonishing set of images by Kennedi Carter in this weeks’ online release of her cover story and interview in the June issue of Glamour US. There’s yet more to the Simone Biles story, with Athleta backing her competitive bird dogging of USA Gymnastics over her being willing to take on permanently USA Gymnastics, the governing body of her sport — a system that ignored staggering sexual abuse by team doctors of young women in their care. Biles has been a leader in that ongoing fight.

DO check out the Simone Biles cover story for Glamour’s June 2021 issue.

Simone Biles Soars by Kennedi Carter for Glamour US June 2021 AOC Fashion

Simone Biles Soars by Kennedi Carter for Glamour US June 2021 | Judge Drops All Charges Against Her Brother

Simone Biles Soars by Kennedi Carter for Glamour US June 2021 | Judge Drops All Charges Against Her Brother

Ten-star, athlete woman Simone Biles covers the June 2021 issue of Glamour Magazine US. And what a cover it is!

Glamour Magazine’s cover fashion story, these images by photographer Kennedi Carter have infused the gymnastic star with a magnetic, spirited, human-beyond-words presence. I always say that on rare occasions with model or subject and the photographer — all hell breaks loose, and it’s like nobody else is in their universe.

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Serena Williams Narrates NIKE 'Dream Crazier' Commercial Debut At 2019 Academy Awards

Following in the footsteps of Colin Kaepernick’s compelling commercial to debut the 30th anniversary of NIKE’s ‘Just Do It’ Campaign, Serena Williams is the narrator in the brand’s new ‘Dream Crazier’ commercial, which aired Sunday night during the 91st Academy Awards. The newest ‘Just Do It’ ad features prominent trailblazing female athletes including including Williams herself, Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Becky Hammon, Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad and other women sports figures expressing emotions including frustration, exhiliaraiton, anger, joy and more during their sporting events.

"If we show emotion, we’re called dramatic," Williams says in the ad. "If we want to play against men, we’re nuts. And if we dream of equal opportunity, we’re delusional. When we stand for something, we’re unhinged. When we’re too good, there’s something wrong with us. And if we get angry, we’re hysterical, irrational, or just being crazy.

"But a woman running a marathon was crazy. A woman boxing was crazy. A woman dunking, crazy. Coaching an NBA team, crazy. A woman competing in a hijab, changing her sport, landing a double-cork 1080, or winning 23 grand slams, having a baby, and then coming back for more, crazy, crazy, crazy, and crazy.

"So if they want to call you crazy, fine. Show them what crazy can do."

Amen, Serena! Thank you, NIKE!