Simone Biles named ESPN’s Most Dominant Athlete of 2018
The 21-year-old Olympic gold medalist and gymnastics phenom has proven why she deserves the title
Simone Biles made history, winning at every event at the World Gymnastics Championships. She’s arguably the best gymnast in the world so it’s no wonder ESPN named her the Most Dominant Athlete of 2018.
The 21-year-old earned six medals in the meet and 20 overall in world championships, tied with Svetlana Khorkina of Russia for the most by a female gymnast.
Biles was hospitalized the day before competing with a kidney stone. But despite hospitalization for a kidney stone just a day before the World Gymnastics Championship in Doha, Qatar, Biles was dominant in qualifying, demonstrating why she is the reigning Olympic champion.
Her performance comes two years after Biles dominated the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, earning five medals, including four golds. She won gold in the individual all-around, team all-around, floor exercise and vault and bronze in the balance beam, although she failed to medal on the uneven bars.
Recently, Biles opened up to Good Morning America about how she’s navigating through the trauma of being sexually abused by the disgraced USA Gymnastics team doctor, Larry Nassar. It’s still difficult, she admitted.
She told Robin Roberts: “I’m on anxiety medicine now because I had a lot of ups and downs throughout the year and trying to figure out what was wrong.”
She added, “I go to therapy pretty regularly.”
“It’s not easy but the people surrounding me are some of the best so it makes it a little easier.”
In January, Biles appeared on Megyn Kelly Today to talk about the sentencing of Nassar. Biles had come out earlier that month to say that she had been abused by Nassar.
On Twitter she wrote:
“I too am one of the many survivors that was sexually abused by Larry Nassar,” said the athlete. “Please believe me when I say it was a lot harder to first speak those words out loud than it is now to put them on paper. There are many reasons that I have been reluctant to share my story, but I know now it is not my fault.”
