SOARING over Rio’s Olympic Arena, US gymnast Simone Biles backflipped, twisted and somersaulted her way to double Olympic gold.
The power-house, who first helped Team USA win gold then went on to clinch gold for herself, is already being dubbed the greatest gymnast of all time for her gravity- defying routines.
Simone, 19, is expected to pick up three more gold medals before the end of the Games in individual floor, vault and balance beam.
She is also now the first woman ever to hold the world and Olympic all-around titles simultaneously.
About her legacy, she said simply: “I’m not the next Usain Bolt or Michael Phelps. I’m the first Simone Biles.”
Her routines are so groundbreaking that in 2013 the International Federation of Gymnastics were forced to enter a new skill into their points scoring code which they named The Biles.
The move involves Simone propelling herself so high during her floor routine that she can perform a daring double somersault in a fully outstretched position with a half-twist in mid-air thrown in for good measure.
It had never been seen before in world competition and no rival dares attempt it.
But the gymnasium isn’t the only place where Simone has made astonishing leaps.
The Texan propelled herself to global sporting stardom from a chaotic start in life.
Born to drug-addicted parents in Columbus, Ohio, Simone spent the first six years of her life being shuffled from foster home to foster home.
Her mother Shanon was hooked on drugs and alcohol and deemed unfit to care for her four children.
Simone’s biological father Kelvin Clemons was absent from his daughter’s life and also struggled with addiction.
Aged three, Simone went to stay with her maternal grandfather Ronald, an air traffic controller and his wife Nellie in Houston, Texas along with her three siblings.
Ron, said: “We took them in as family because they were family. And just gave them what we had — that’s love and encouragement.”
After two years, Ron and Nellie, a former nurse who co-owned a string of nursing homes officially adopted Simone, then six, and her sister Adria who is two years younger.
Simone’s older sister Nicari and brother Tevon meanwhile were taken in by Ron’s sister. She instantly began calling her new parents “mom” and “dad” and Ron and Nellie lovingly guided their new daughter through the tough choices she was forced to make as a budding sports star.
There were tearful tantrums as the age of 14 when Simone faced the tough choice to stay on at school or be tutored at home — the only practical option if she wanted to reach the elite ranks in gymnastics.
Nellie said: “I told her, ‘Whatever choice you make, I will support you. But you have to make that decision because this is really a change in your life.’”
Leaving behind the happy, normality of school was heartbreaking for Simone. She said: “All my friends went to school.
The football games, just being a normal kid. I don’t think anyone really wants to be home-schooled for years.”
But Nellie described how once Simone chose her path, she didn’t waver.
Nellie recalled how she asked her daughter recently if felt she had made the right choice.
“She turned to me and said, ‘Well Mom, I have lost so much. By giving up public school I lost a lot of friends because we don’t have the same interests.
“‘I don’t do ‘hanging out’ whatever that is. I’ve never gone to someone’s party, so I don’t know what they do there.
“And I’ve never had a prom. I gave up a lot, but I made the right decision, because look what I’ve accomplished.’”
Simone has also told how she struggled for a time coping with teenage hormones and confidence issues while pushing herself to the limit in her sport.
She said: “There were weeks when I couldn’t remember a day that I didn’t cry.”
Simone’s coach Aimee Boorman helped her young charge learn meditation and breathing exercises.
She also persuaded her to see a sports psychologist to help the teen deal with the turbulence of adolescence and her extreme expectations of herself.
America has an unexpected Texas heatwave to thank for their gymnastic superstar. When she was six Simone was due to go on a field trip to a ranch.
But the temperatures meant Simone’s class was taken to Bannon’s gymnasium in Houston instead and the little girl was instantly transfixed.
Nellie has told how she was relieved Simone had found a hobby which finally put an end to her daughter bouncing all over her furniture.
And it quickly became obvious that Biles was a one off.
Early on she caught the eye of former gymnast Aimee, 43, who has trained Simone ever since.
It is the first time she has coached an elite gymnast and she said:: “Simone put her hands at her sides, and she pulls up her legs through a plank onto her stomach. At the age of six. That’s not normal.
“She was waiting for her turn on the bars and she couldn’t stand still.
“There was just kinetic energy from her body. I was like, ‘Wow, this kid is something.’”
Simone was too young to compete in London 2012 but in 2013, she burst onto the international sporting stage when she won the all-round world title as a virtual unknown.
It was a feat she repeated for the next two years, making her the first female gymnast to win that title three times in a row.
Simone won 14 world championship medals in three years — more than any US athlete in history. The extraordinary haul meant she was already being dubbed “the greatest of all time” before she even had an Olympic medal to her name.
But 4ft 9in Simone didn’t buckle under the pressure this week. She made it look easy.
Her winning margin for the individual all-around was a huge 2.1 points, which is larger than the margin of victory from 1980 to 2012 Olympics combined.
Female gymnasts have become known for their stern, focused gazes but Simone smiles and looks like she doesn’t have a care in the world.
She said: “I love competing. Most athletes get intimidated once they see how many fans are out there but it almost calms me down in a way because I think of it as a fun way to show off what I have been working on.”
Simone has managed to put her talented teammates in the shade, forcing Olympic captain Aly Raisman into silver position in the individual all-around.
With her tough back story and incredible success, Simone embodies the full weight of the American Dream within her compact but powerful frame.
It is little wonder then that clips of her routines quickly rack up mammoth hits online and Twitter goes into overdrive.
One fan tweeted during an Olympic performance: “You can do anything you set your mind to. Except for Simone Biles’ floor routine.”
Celebrity fans who have wished Simone luck on Twitter include Kim Kardashian and Hillary Clinton.
During the brief windows in her 32-hour-a-week training regime Simone has chores at home which include feeding her four German shepherds, washing up and cleaning her room.
Any spare time is spent watching Netflix, listening to Justin Bieber or shopping.
Her brother said: “The most remarkable thing about my sister is how normal she is. When you see Simone out there competing, and she’s happy and smiling, making colourful little comments and remarks, that’s genuinely her.”
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Given her appeal to young girls, Simone is expected to land multi-million dollar endorsement deals after her Rio success.
But her moment in the limelight has also reopened old wounds. After Ron made reference to Simone’s biological mother’s drug use in an interview, Shanon hit back.
Furious Shanon, 44, who now has two more kids aged 12 and nine, who live with her in Ohio, insisted she has been clean for almost nine years and now has a relationship with Simone.
She said: “He could have been more classy about it. It was hard to give up my kids but I had to do what I had to.
“I wasn’t able to care for them. I’ve come a long way. I knew she was going to be somebody some day.”
The athlete has no contact with her biological father although Shanon, who still speaks to him, told how he had been watching their daughter compete in Rio.
Reflecting on her turbulent early life and adoption Simone said: “I wonder what my life would be like if none of this happened. I want to know why my mother did what she did.
“But those aren’t questions for me because that was her lifestyle when I wasn’t even born.
“I have everything I need so there are no blanks left unfilled. I never felt I had questions or needed answers or had a part of me that was missing.”
Now with her historic haul of medals, Simone no doubt feels even more complete.
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