GRAMMY Award-winning singer and songwriter SZA is known far and wide for her music. Her musical career started with her first album, Ctrl, which yielded her five Grammy nominations and fame in abundance. However, before finding her calling for the musical realm, the singing sensation was far down the gymnastic path. Yes, a rather lesser-known aspect of SZA’s life before rising to stardom in her current vocation is that she has spent a significant time on the mats, perfecting her gravity-defying routines!

As per Complex, SZA shed light on the sporting career that she once had a strong inclination toward. She mentioned, “I was a gymnast for 13 years, so I was heavy into sports. I directed all my attention to it. I did really well in sports and was captain of my team.” She adds, “I was hardcore USA Gymnastics.” In fact, the musician even had the honor of meeting the gymnastic G.O.A.T Simone Biles once, with whom she discussed the nitty-gritty of the sport and competed in a friendly handstand contest.

Not just a passion-driven endeavor, it looked like SZA was really good at gymnastics. She mentioned to Complex, “When I was a sophomore in high school in 2005, I was 5th in the nation as a gymnast.” Undeniably, this was a great feat. Evidently, gymnastics was more than a leisure to her, which she herself admits. As documented in a Nylon interview, she even says how “It [gymnastics] was like the way I feel about music. I was very connected to it, to the growth.” 

SZA hasn’t scraped out the traces of gymnastics from her life. In fact, she embraces it in every form. Occasionally, the singer-songwriter finds herself at Sky Zone to tumble for a little while and bounce around. Also, if she’s in a large vacant space, usually a room without many tables, she starts doing handstands or other stunts from her arsenal. Well, SZA’s love for handstands did come alive when she met 4x Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles.

The grand SZA-Simone meet up

When SZA and Simone Biles met, it was like two of the best from their domains bonding over a common passion. In a YouTube video documented by NBC Sports, the SOS album creator had a real-life meet up with Biles. She praised the gymnastic phenom’s skills and agreed that although she had a gymnastic history, Biles’s skills place her in a different league altogether. All chuckles, the two seemed to be having a great time with each other.

SZA had previously agreed that doing gymnastics felt good to her body. The same sentiment was evident as she took a handstand challenge against Biles, who ultimately touched her legs down to the ground first. SZA further confessed that she switched her side to the musical path much later, when she felt that she could not be a national gymnast. However, it is clear that SZA has some fond memories of the sport to look back at!