The year 2016 was a golden year in Simone Biles’ career. She was a part of the strong United States women’s gymnastics contingent for the Rio Olympics, which also had the likes of Aly Raisman and Laurie Hernandez. She went on to win her first gold medal at the Olympics after coming out on top in the gymnastics team event. Subsequently, she also clinched three individual gold medals in all-around, vault, and floor exercise events.

Apart from the four Olympic gold medals, Biles has also won an astonishing 19 World Championships gold medals. She once made an interesting confession during the 2019 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships.

Simone Biles once denied having a longer career than Oksana Chusovitina

Uzbekistan’s Oksana Chusovitina is an artistic gymnastics legend. An eight-time Olympian, she announced her retirement after the Tokyo 2020 Olympic games. However, she made a U-turn on her retirement decision and plans to participate in the 2022 Asian Games and the 2024 Paris Olympic games.

During a press conference at the 2019 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships, Biles was asked if she could have her career longevity as Oksana Chusovitina. Talking about this, she said, “She’s very brave, she has a lot of courage. I definitely unfortunately won’t be going to 44 years old. She’s doing the all-around? Okay, yeah, I won’t be trying that.”

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Oksana Chusovitina has had an illustrious gymnastics career. Apart from her career longevity, she has also managed a couple of podium finishes at the Olympic games. She won the gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympic games in Barcelona. Further, she clinched a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympic games in the vault event.

Biles entered the record books at the 2019 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships

The legendary American gymnast created history yet again as she became the most decorated gymnast in World Championships history. She overtook Vitaly Scherbo’s tally of 23 medals at the event by winning a historic 24th medal in the balance beam event.

On the same day, she also won the title on the floor to take her tally to 19 gold medals at the World Championships. It was a glorious week for Biles, winning five gold medals.

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After dropping out of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic games, Biles is still undecided whether she’ll participate in the 2024 Paris Olympic games.