American athlete Simone Biles covers the May 2022 issue of ELLE Espana. Odile Iturraspe styles Biles in a collection of romantic luxury looks from Alberta Ferretti, Altuzarra, Balmain, Bottega Veneta, Chanel, Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, Etro, Louis Vuitton and more. Photographer JuanKr [IG] captures Biles dancing, prancing, jumping for the camera. / Beauty by Jazmin Johnson

Writing Down Her Goals

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.

Biles is so happy being airborne. She jumps, dances and flies through the air with a body that is small, powerful and tremendously agile. Given her athletic prowess and complicated personal history in gymnastics, Simone Biles will improve gymnastics forever.

She is not done yet with gymnastics, committed not only to performing — how, where and when is not known yet — but also in her role of bird-dogging the sport on behalf of other young women gymnasts.

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,” Biles share with ELLE Espana’s Claudia Saiz Puig.

Biles Joins Other Gymnasts in Suing FBI for $130 Million

Simone Biles is notoriously careful about her words and gestures — but not in a way that is artificial or rehearsed. Biles has experienced a great deal of life, and especially as a survivor of sexual violence at the hands of finally imprisoned Larry Nassar, team doctor of the United States women’s national gymnastics team.

On Friday, April 22 of this week [ and not reported in the ELLE Espana interview], attorneys representing Biles and 12 other US women gymnasts filed a legal mechanism in Michigan to request redress under the Federal Tort Claims Act. After filing the claims seeking $130 million in damages from the FBI. a period of six months commences for the parties to reach resolution. If they are unable to find common ground, the women can then sue for personal injury.

These actions come after and the release of a July 2021 report issued by the Justice Department inspector general.

The report found the FBI’s Indianapolis field office first heard from USA Gymnastics in July 2015 about Nassar-related allegations and did nothing. Led by demands from the young women, the sports organization filed a new complaint with the FBI field office in Los Angeles. Agents in LA put more work into the case, but ultimately they also took no action against Nassar.

Ultimately state law enforcement officials in Michigan arrested and charged the sexual predator with sexual assault. Members of the local FBI field office where Nasser committed his crimes only learned of the Nassar allegations through news stories and an investigation launched that year by Michigan State University police.

“Despite credible reports to the FBI, Nassar continued his reign of terror for almost 17 unnecessary months,” Jamie White, an attorney for the 13 women, said Thursday. “In large part, Nassar continued to have access to countless girls on almost a daily basis. An unthinkable and unnecessary number of sexual assaults occurred at the hands of Nassar during that period of time.”

An FBI raid found more than 37,000 images of child pornography in Nassar’s possession; and he pleaded guilty to the possession charge in July of 2017. After serving a sentence of 60 years in federal prison for child pornography, Larry Nassar is scheduled to serve a sentence of 40 to 175 years in Michigan state prison.

Confronted by a breakdown between mind and body, Simone Biles got the ‘Twisties’ at the summer 2021 Tokyo Olympic games. Her confrontation with damage done to her own mental health — and the physiological knowledge that she could easily break her neck if she continued in Olympic competition — gave rise to Biles as a critical voice in a growing international dialogue around the prevalence of mental anxiety and depression in the sports world and beyond.

Manifesting perhaps more courage than ever required in her death-defying routines, Simone Biles returned to Olympic competition in her final scheduled event in Tokyo, winning a bronze medal on the balance beam.

Unable to recover and move forward without a professional at her side, Biles sought expert help in therapy. She explains that the therapy has taught her resilience, to have more courage, to say “no” and to raise her voice for herself more easily.

The Benefits of Creating a Bubble

In a lesson most of us can learn from, Simone Biles says she is better at ignoring “nonsense’, explaining “I have tuned my ears. I stay in my bubble, because I know that I don't want anyone to poison me.”

While AOC can’t imagine this world-class woman poisoning anyone with cruel words or social media commentary, we should consider if our own actions combine to inflict pain on others. It’s a highly-opinionated social media world out there.

Simone Biles will be married between February and July of 2023, out of season. Her boyfriend Jonathan Owens is an American football safety for the NFL Houston Texans. Her professional relationship with Gap division Athleta is soaring, and she has just now delivered her first collection of Athleta Girl, a limited-edition clothing line for girls 6-12.

Biles’ Athleta clothes are filled with “little love notes” created to motivate girls into believing in themselves. "You can do it," The floor is yours" and "No dream is too small or too big,” are just the beginning from the young woman who faced adversity multiple times — the kind that breaks you forever — and she roared. ~ Anne