"I don't remember a lot about foster care" - When Simone Biles opened up on challenges she faced before adoption by grandparents

Simone Biles once opened up about the struggles she and her siblings faced while navigating through foster care system in Houston. She and her siblings were put in foster care following their biological mother's incapacity to provide for them due to drug addiction.

After spending three years in foster care, Biles and her siblings were adopted by her grandparents, Ronald and Nellie. While the gymnast and her sister, Adria, were welcomed by the couple, Ashley and Tevin were adopted by their great aunt Harriet. As a three-year-old foster kid, Biles faced many hardships in the foster system.

In an interview with news.sky.com in 2021, Biles stated that although she did not remember much about her foster days, she felt lucky that she and her siblings were kept together, highlighting that siblings usually get separated during the process.

"I don't remember a lot about foster care," she said. "We were very fortunate we actually got to stay with our siblings because a lot of the time you either get regrouped from home to home to home, or you get split up."

Ronald and Nellie played the most crucial role in Biles' legendary gymnastics career. She first identified her passion for the sport during a day-care field, in which she was enrolled by Nellie.

Simone Biles once reflected on her mother Nellie's important advice in gymnastics

Simone Biles at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France. (Photo by Getty Images)

In her autobiography Courage to Soar: A Body in Motion, A Life in Balance, published in 2016, Simone Biles opened up about her mother Nellie's important advice that changed her perspective towards gymnastics. Her mother emphasized the importance of executing personal best in competitions rather than having a goal of beating other athletes.

"My mom always told me, 'Don’t ever compete against someone else, Simone. You don’t go out there to beat another person. You go out there to do your very best. And if your very best means that you win that competition, that’s the way it should be,'" Biles wrote. "'If your very best means that you come in third or fourth, that’s fine too. As long as you did your best. You don’t go out there grudgingly and think, 'Oh, I need to beat that person.' No, no, no. You go out there and be the best Simone you can be. And whatever that outcome is, we’ll take it.'”

Simone Biles' parents attended every competition she competed in (except the Tokyo Olympics), and they also built a 56,000-square-foot World Champions Centre, a gymnastics facility for her training.

Edited by Hitesh Nigam