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Simone Biles
She stepped off the floor in Tokyo, and the argument about athletes and their own minds changed sides.
The rise
Born in Columbus, Ohio, on 14 March 1997, she was placed in foster care as a small child and adopted at six by her grandparents in Texas. She found gymnastics on a day-care outing, turned elite in 2011 and took the world all-around title in 2013 at sixteen, the first of a record six.
What they did
Four golds at Rio in 2016. At Tokyo in July 2021 she withdrew from the team final after one vault, citing the 'twisties', and took bronze on beam. On 15 September 2021 she told the Senate Judiciary Committee the FBI had turned a blind eye to Nassar; in April 2024 the Justice Department paid $138.7 million to settle 139 claims. She came back at Paris in 2024 for three golds and a silver.
The full picture
Commentators called her a quitter, and one, Charlie Kirk, a 'selfish sociopath'; others held that her withdrawal cost team-mates a medal. Her advocacy sits beside commerce: she left Nike for Athleta in 2021, saying the new sponsor backed her as a person, and fronted its first national television campaign before Paris.
Why it matters
Her withdrawal in Tokyo and her testimony seven weeks later moved the line on what an athlete may say about their own body and mind — and then she came back and won.
“I blame Larry Nassar, and I also blame an entire system that enabled and perpetrated his abuse.”