Dan Wetzel - Epic Athletes--Simone Biles

SIMONE BILES, IN HER custom-fit, red, white, and blue leotard, stood on one end of the mat, her left hand high in the air, her right resting on her hip.

Twelve thousand fans stared down at her inside Rio Olympic Arena in Brazil, everyone hushed and quiet as they waited for the music to start and Simone to begin a ninety-second floor routine that might tumble her right into history.

The then-nineteen-year-old from the suburbs of Houston, Texas, was in the lead at the womens all-around gymnastics competition at the 2016 Olympics. All that remained was her strongest eventfloor. Do it well and shed be crowned champion.

There were Olympic rings hanging on a banner overhead. There was a gold medal waiting to be hung around someones neck. There was anticipation in the air as spectators wondered what type of show the greatest gymnast of all time would stage. She was a tiny figure in the middle of a huge arena, an American dynamo who stood just four foot eight.

I tell people four foot nine sometimes, she once said with a laugh.

To say this was Simone Biless lifelong dream, the one that powered her through the days at practice when she lacked motivation, wasnt even true. She had never actually dreamed this far. Olympic champion? Gold medalist? The greatest of all time? That was too much to conceive, even on those quiet nights growing up when she tried to fantasize her way to sleep.

No, as a young gymnast, leaping and cartwheeling through recreation classes and local Junior Olympic meets and even as she climbed the competitive national and international ranks, pushing herself more and more, she aspired only to reach the Olympics.

Just getting here was enough. Winning gold? It somehow never crossed her mind.

Simone was a planner. She liked to write down goals in a small notebook she kept in her bedroom back in Spring, Texas. It could be about achieving a certain grade in a certain class, something related to gymnastics, or another milestone. It was a way to keep her focused. It was a way to keep her going.

Yet once she qualified for her first Olympics a few weeks prior to the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro, there was nothing else she had written down that remained to be accomplished. She had already been national champion four times and world champion three. She had already turned professional. She had already signed contracts that would make her millions in endorsement deals.

Her mother, Nellie, was concerned that Simone might not perform well if she didnt jot down the ultimate goalOlympic champion in the all-around. That gold signifies the best in the world because it requires each gymnast to perform in all four eventsvault, balance beam, uneven bars, and this one, floor exercise. So Nellie encouraged her daughter to put it on paper, make it official.

Simone was hesitant. It seemed unnecessary and even made her nervous and anxious. She had come to embrace the philosophy of Martha Karolyi, the US national team coordinator and a legendary coach in the sport.

Martha would say, You want to perform like you train. Did you perform like you trained? If you perform like you train, then the judging will work itself out, Simone said.

Its a simple lesson that can deliver incredible accomplishments. Do what you can do and dont stress about anything else.

If I do my job, I do my job, Simone said. There is nothing I can do to control the scores.

So Simone would only meet her mother halfway. She did write down a new goal, but it had nothing to do with medals or scores or sticking the landing on an Amanar.

I will make you proud, Simone wrote to her mother.

That was it. That was all. Nellie could only smile when she read it. Simone could have fallen fifty times on her floor routine and she would still be proud of her daughter.

Ron and Nellie Biles were not Simones birth parents. They were, originally, her grandparents.

Ron Biles had a daughter from a previous relationship named Shanon, who had given birth to four children, including Simone, the third child. Shanon and the kids lived in Ohio, but when Shanon struggled with alcohol and drug addiction, eventually child services said she was an unfit mother and took her children from her, putting them temporarily in foster care.

Ron and Nellie had married after his first relationship broke off, and they were living in Texas at the time. When Shanon was unable to care for her kids, the pair stepped in and adopted the two youngest, Simone and her little sister, Adria. The two older children went with another relative. It wasnt planned this way, but Grandma and Grandpa officially and legally became Simones mom and dad. Ron and Nellie already had two older boys and now the family was unexpectedly bigger, and given Simones natural interest in flips and twists, bouncier.

Neither Ron nor Nellie knew anything about gymnastics when Simone and Adria first began going to a local gym to burn off excess energy. They certainly never expected to be here, at the Olympics, staring down at their daughter who was on the verge of winning the all-around gold. It wasnt the athletic success that made them love her, though. It was everything else.

We have so much satisfaction from all our kids, Ron Biles said. We love family and everything involved with it. We share all the special moments together and this is a pretty special one.

Down on that mat, Simone was trying to remain calm. She had trained since she was six years old to get to this spot. She had always been a pint-size powerhouse, always small for her age. Yet in elementary school, she was often stronger than the boys and had no problem showing them.

She was pure muscle, with ripped arms and springy legs that launched her into the air. She had a core so strong she could twist in midair almost at will. She also possessed an unteachable ability to sense where she was while in flight.

The routine she was about to attempt was one of the most technically challenging runs of skills in the history of the sport. The Olympics were home to the best gymnasts on earth, yet no other gymnast present would even attempt such a difficult feat.

Simone wasnt just going to try it. She was going to try to do it perfectly.

It began with a full-twisting double layout, where a gymnast flips in the air with her legs completely straightened out (rather than bending her knees). Next up, a double laid-out salto (a flip with the legs tucked to the chest) with a half twist, a move so hard that no one had ever landed it in a World Championship until Simone had done so in 2013. As a result, it was known as the Biles.