U.S. Gymnast Simone Biles Going For Gold In Rio Olympics

SPRING, TX — Standing at just 4 feet, 8 inches tall, diminutive Simone Biles is a giant in her field.

People magazine summed up this notion in a headline to its feature on the athlete: "Simone Biles Is the 'Greatest' Gymnast in History: Deconstructing Her Jaw-Dropping Dominance." It's no exaggeration, either.

"I run out of adjectives talking about her," former Olympic gold medalist and NBC gymnastics analyst Tim Daggett told the magazine. Others similarly run out of superlatives to describe the 19-year-old phenom, with a long list of former and current gymnastics Olympians saying she's the best they've ever seen.

Her Summer Olympics teammate Aly Raismanis has famously said that anyone competing against Biles is aiming for second place, People reported.

In a glowing Texas Monthly profile, even more accolades. No less a figure than Mary Lou Retton told the magazine Biles "...may be the most talented gymnast I've ever seen in my life." Steve Penny, president of USA Gymnastics, went further: “She is as dominant as Michael Jordan was when he was on the top of his game. She is as dominant as LeBron James. She is as dominant as Tom Brady. She is as dominant as any athlete in any sport.”

Pretty heady stuff. And for us cheering her on in Texas as she competes in the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, it gets better: She hails from Texas, and is the pride of the Lone Star State.

Biles actually was born in Columbus, Ohio, on March 14, 1997. But in a personal narrative as dramatic as her floor presentations that leave crowds agape, she made her way to Spring after being adopted by her grandfather and his wife.

Addicted to drugs and alcohol, Biles' mother was unable to care for her daughter and her three other children. As a result, the Biles children — a sister seven years older, a brother five years older and another sister two years her junior — went from one foster home to another.

In 2003, her grandfather and his wife, Ronald and Nellie Biles, adopted the two youngest children, Simone and sister Adria. Ronald's sister adopted the two eldest. As a result, she relocated to Spring, a community just outside of Houston.

Watching Simone soar through the air all but defying gravity, it's hard to imagine that she once endured such a difficult childhood. It's even more awe-inspiring at the heights she's achieved in overcoming those early obstacles.

Yet there she is, on a world stage representing her country at the 2016 Summer Olympics. On Sunday, Biles competed in the Woman's Qualification at the Olympics, where she scored a 16.000 on the vault, a 15.000 on the uneven bars, a 15.633 on the balance beam and a 15.733 on the floor exercise.

In plain English (and breaking it down for those unfamiliar with her sport): Those are darn good scores. Along with her team, she qualified individually in all categories — all-around, vault, balance beam and floor exercise finals. Look for her Tuesday afternoon (Aug. 9) during the women's vault and uneven bars competition, and prepare to retrieve your jaw up from the floor.

Prior to reaching the Olympics, Biles secured her third all-around national — just the second woman ever to do so — at the U.S. National Championships. She and her teammates were picked to represent the U.S. at the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Glasgow, Scotland. By the time she was done, her total World Championship medal count was 14 (the most for any American) and total gold medal count was 10 (the most for any woman in World Championship history).

This marks Biles' debut in Olympic play, as she was too young to compete at 15 (just one year shy for eligibility) for the London Olympics. But, as she told Texas Monthly, she's rather fearless.

“I don’t fear what will happen, but you just get ahead of yourself, like, ‘Oh my gosh, I wish it would happen now,’” Biles told the magazine.

She's also unconcerned about the so-called "Olympics jinx," positing that only three reigning female world champions have gone on to win the Olympic title.

“That’s all the media cares about right now, whether I’m going to break some Olympic jinx that I’ve never even heard of,” Biles told the magazine with an attendant eye roll. “It was never my deal to break that. But I guess I have to now, because you guys said I have to.”

In that same magazine profile, Biles related some memories of that hard childhood she's been able to overcome with such aplomb. She recalled one early memory at one of the foster homes where there was a trampoline that the future Olympian and her sibling weren't allowed to play on.

Those days of uncertainty are thankfully past. And regardless of what may happen in Rio, in myriad ways Simone Biles has already won.

>>> Photos via Getty Images, image atop story via Team USA on Flickr