Simone Biles laughs loud and often, which alone sets her apart from the women's elite Gymnastics set, who tend toward the serious and stoic, at least on the competition floor. That's to say nothing of her Gymnastics, which truly puts Biles in a class by herself.
At this week's Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Glasgow (GBR), the 18-year-old Texan will try to become the first woman in history to win three consecutive World All-around titles. And Biles, whose natural power and athleticism allow her to float through routines packed with the most difficult skills in women's Gymnastics, is likely to be smiling the whole time.
Biles's ascension from a face-in-the-crowd junior on the deep U.S. team to World champion and favorite for gold at next summer's Olympic Games has been swift. When she was younger, Biles's coaches feared they would lose the talented child to another activity if Gymnastics didn't stay fun. As a result, her star didn't really rise until she became a senior competitor in 2013, where she blitzed the field at her rookie World Championships.
Since then, she has not lost a competition, and usually wins by large margins, thanks as much to her impeccable execution of skills as to her extreme level of difficulty. Her fourth tumbling run on Floor exercise, performed at the tail end of a punishing routine, is still harder than many of her rivals' first passes.
On Balance Beam, she has built up a collection of diverse, hard-to-master elements, which she exhibits in a routine ending with the hardest dismount being done today. She has received near-perfect scores for her powerful Amanar vault, a blur of flips and twists which she usually lands like a dart.
With nine World medals in just two appearances at the World Championships, Biles is just two medals shy of setting a new American record. That could happen in Glasgow, where she will be the not-so-secret weapon of the gold medal favorite U.S. Women's team.
Her secret to success? Not taking herself too seriously, perhaps. When she's not performing, Biles remains the fun-loving teenager, giggling on the sidelines with her teammates or posting videos of herself goofing off on Instagram. During the medal ceremony at the 2014 World Championships, Biles provided one of the most entertaining moments of the competition when she discovered a bee in her bouquet, dropped the flowers and dashed around the medal podium laughing. "I don't do bees," Biles laughed later.
With less than a year before Rio, Biles also prefers not to get too ahead of herself. While the Gymnastics world is already proclaiming her as the favorite for Olympic gold next summer, Biles says she's just focusing on making the U.S. Olympic team. That goal attained, the fun can really begin.
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