Simone Biles’ Coach Had to Dive in When Her Parents Were Disrespected During 2016 Rio Olympics: “They Are Her Parents”

Gymnastics legend Simone Biles has gone through a rough childhood. However, since her grandparents, Ron and Nellie Biles, adopted her, it changed her life for the good. At the time, the Olympic champion was too young to comprehend what was going on in her life. Hence, for Simone, Ron and Nellie became her actual parents.

However, in 2016, it gathered much attention when NBC’s gymnastics play-by-play man, Al Trautwig, clearly refused to call her grandparents her actual parents. Subsequently, the man received a lot of criticism on social media, and Biles’ coach, Aimee Boorman, was the one who slammed him for his remark.

Al Trautwig refused to call Simone’s adoptive parents her actual parents

During the United States gymnastics qualifiers for the Rio Olympics, Simone Biles once again showcased her remarkable talent and was at the top as usual. However, NBC’s Al Trautwig probably would have ruined her special moment by making a sensitive comment on her adoptive parents. As he was narrating her story, he said, “she was raised by her grandfather and his wife, and she calls them Mom and Dad.” 

On the remark, Biles’ coach, Aimee Boorman, wrote on Twitter, “actually they are her parents.” Thereafter seeing the backlash, Trautwig deleted his comment from Twitter. 

Whether Trautwig said it on purpose or were they just the words of the moment still remains a mystery.

READ MORE- “Didn’t Think She Was Good Enough”: Simone Biles’ Mother Once Revealed, How the Gymnast Struggled With Self-Esteem

People who Stood by Simone Biles

Relationships are a complicated subject. Nevertheless, you get to choose what you can call someone. Besides her siblings, her grandparents are the only family Simone saw as a child. Furthermore, a significant amount of credit goes to Ron and Nellie Biles for shaping her life in a way so that she could accomplish such great things. Hence, addressing them as parents only makes sense.

At 3, Simone was living in foster care. That was because her biological parents weren’t eligible enough to take care of their four children. Both of them were struggling with drug addiction issues at the time. It was Ron and Nellie Biles who took the overall responsibility of raising a kid who was moving from foster care to foster care. Perhaps Trautwig missed the whole picture of her grandparents filling in the role of parents in Simone’s life.

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