More Bulked Up Than The Boys, Simone Biles Had to Hide Her Body in Highschool: “I Wasn’t Confident”

Simone Biles will give it another shot at adding 4 or 5 more golds to her 37-medal purse. At the Tokyo Games, not seeing herself on the winning team was a bummer, but her mental health needed attention. Her mental health was always a cause of concern, starting from her foster care days to her uneventful twisties farrago in Tokyo 2021.

But thankfully, her parents saved her except for those times when Biles was fighting her demons. At 6, after a field trip to a gymnasium, the 27-year-old officially started her gymnastic career. But her school days were particularly not pleasant, much akin to the growing pains of the other girls of her age. Extensive gym training made her musculature more defined than many guys her age, a bone of contention she recently shared on a podcast.

Simone Biles had a long-standing insecurity

In a podcast with “Call Her Daddy”, the 4x Olympic gold medalist shared the harrows of her heydays. “I wanted to go to the football games, I wanted to go to the school dances..but it was okay that I didn’t because I knew I wasn’t confident enough in my body to show my muscles”. Extensively training day and night made her muscles look bigger than the boys. So, hoodies and loose clothes were the only options for her. Being at the top of her game at 16 and winning the Olympics at 19 did come at a cost.

She missed out on Friday Night Lives and hanging out with friends on the weekends. However, she confided in gym buddies and the gym was the only place she felt the most confident in. But more nightmares crept in after she secured her name in the history book, a journey from the Texas gym to the international stage.

Biles was occupied with an unknown scare

“I was scared. My followers go up 10,000 and then I had a million… it was kind of weird to me that people were following me because I had won the Olympics..I really need to find out who I am without gymnastics because I didn’t think I was gonna do it again”, she stated in the podcast. Navigating the fame also was a matter of concern after having been unconfident in her athletic structure. 

Now, the 27-year-old is the most successful gymnast, owning her skin like no other and also being the voice of millions. Boasting 37 medals across Worlds and Olympics, the 7x Olympic medalist will give it a fair shot this time, with fingers crossed. Time will tell if the Paris games will be kinder to her, a far cry from Tokyo’s twisties badlands.