Is Simone Biles Really a Dwarf? All You Need to Know

Simone Biles is one of the greatest Olympians in the Olympics history, but is she a dwarf let’s delve and check the viral rumor.

By Blesson Daniel

Published on Aug 02, 2024 | 09:37 PM IST | 1.5M

Simone Biles [Credit-Instagram@simonebiles]

Simone Biles, one of history's greatest gymnasts, has unexpectedly become a champion for mental health in sports. Biles, born on March 14, 1997, in Columbus, Ohio, has made important contributions to gymnastics and is well-known for her exceptional talents and athleticism.

Simone Biles is not a dwarf or known to have autism. She stands 4 feet 8 inches tall and has no hereditary disease linked with dwarfism.

She earned national prominence during the 2016 Rio Olympics, winning four gold medals, demonstrating her athletic prowess.

Simone Biles' journey is documented in a new Netflix documentary titled "Simone Biles Rising." The four-part documentary series began on July 17, 2024.

During the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Biles had to withdraw from many events owing to "the twisties," a hazardous lack of spatial awareness.

Simone Biles showed this on Thursday evening (1 August), when she overcame an early blunder to win her second Olympic all-around title in Paris 2024.

Biles' score of 59.131 was gold, while Brazil's Rebeca Andrade took silver with 57.932 points. Suni Lee, an American, finished third (56.465).

All three ladies had previously appeared on the Olympic all-around podium, a first.

Biles won her first victory in Rio eight years ago, in 2016. Three years ago, Lee and Andrade won gold and silver medals at Tokyo 2020.

Biles may have hoped for her finest moment three years ago at the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020. Instead, the superstar was forced to withdraw from the women's team final and four consecutive finals to focus on her mental health, suffering from a bout of what gymnasts refer to as the 'twisties,' in which the body and mind go out of sync. It triggered an international discussion regarding mental health in sports.

It motivated her to put in the hard effort, both physically and psychologically, to return to the top of the world.

Despite starting with a tremendous 15.766 on the vault - her daring Yurchenko double pike was the best score of the night - Biles lost her 666 lead after nearly falling on a flip from high to low on the uneven bars.

Her 13.733 put her 267 behind Andrade as she headed to the beam.

Biles isn't used to being in this situation. The last time she trailed in a global all-around final was in Rio 2016 when Russia's Aliya Mustafina led from start to finish in each of the previous three.

Until Biles, no woman had ever won two non-consecutive Olympic all-around titles.

Two women (Larisa Latynina 1956-60 and Vera Čáslavská1964-68) and four men (Alberto Braglia 1908-12; Viktor Chukarin 1952-56; Kato Sawao 1968-72; and Uchimura Kohei 2012-2016) have won two Olympic all-around gold medals.

Biles' tenth medal in the Games brings her career total to six golds, one silver, and two bronze. At 27, she is the oldest woman to win the all-around title in 72 years, since Maria Gorokhovskaya, at 30, won in the event's first staging in Helsinki in 1952.

Though she will not be able to match Latynina's overall record of 18, she can tie the Soviet great's gold medal total of nine if she wins the vault final on Saturday (3 August) and the beam and floor finals on Monday (5 August).

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