Simone Biles addressed a bucket list item on Sunday when she suited up and took the field with NFL’s Houston Texans Cheerleaders. The Olympic gymnast, who competed on season 24 of “Dancing With the Stars,” performed as the squad’s first-ever honorary member during the game against the San Francisco 49ers at Houston’s NRG Stadium.

Biles donned the cheerleaders’ signature uniform: navy blue cheer shorts, a cropped Texans top, metallic pom poms and the legendary red Houston Texans boots, which she received last week.

(Watch the video above.)

“Simone, as our first honorary Houston Texans cheerleader, we would like to present you with some legendary red boots,” one of the veteran dancers told her in a video, as Biles accepted.

freaking SIMONE BILES pic.twitter.com/MjK0dww6nR

— Sister Savannah (@savannah22552) December 10, 2017

Although the Texans lost 26-16 to the 49ers, Biles clearly had a personal victory. She took to social media with her joy:

PHOTOS: Instagram, PR Photos, AP

Follow The Willie Moore Jr. Show on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram! 

[ione_media_gallery id="365620" overlay="true"]

One of the most successful gymnasts of all time, Simone Biles had quite a back story. She and her sister were adopted by her grandfather and his wife as her mother struggled with a drug problem. Despite her modest beginnings, Biles went on to dominate gymnastics, ultimately becoming an Olympic champion.

Lifetime, naturally, wanted to tell her story. The Simone Biles Story debuts on Lifetime on February 3 starring Tisha Campbell Martin, Julius Tennon and Jeantè Godlock in the role as Simone Biles.

From Shadow and Act:

ased on her book, Courage to Soar: A Body in Motion, A Life in Balance, the film follows Simone Biles (Godlock) through the sacrifices and hard work that led her to win 19 Olympic and World Championship medals and ultimately cemented her stake as one of the greatest gymnasts of all time.

Further description: “After a field trip to a gymnastics training center when Simone was six years old, she caught the eye of a local coach who recognized that Simone had a remarkable gift for the sport. But pursuing her dream of becoming an elite gymnast also meant giving up high school football games, prom or starting college at UCLA.

With her parents Ron (Tennon) and Nellie Biles (Campbell-Martin) and younger sister Adria (Raven Bowens) supporting her every step of the way, Simone’s journey from foster care to the Olympic podium – with all of its triumphs and heartbreaks – can serve as an inspiration for every little girl with a dream.”

READ MORE STORIES ON BLACKAMERICAWEB.COM:

• Has Kenya Moore Been Fired From ‘Real Housewives of Atlanta?’
• Inside Her Story: Jacque Reid Talks To DJuana Butler, Whose Viral Photo Helped A Determined Teen
• Four Different Ways You Can Wear A Leather Moto Jacket

GET THE HOTTEST STORIES STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX: 

Simone Biles watched as her friends and former Olympic teammates came forward to detail abuse at the hands of a now-imprisoned former USA Gymnastics team doctor.

Drawing in part from their strength, the four-time gold medalist acknowledged Monday she is among the athletes who were sexually abused by Larry Nassar.

Biles, who won five medals overall at the 2016 Olympics, released a statement via Twitter outlining that abuse.

Nassar, who spent more than two decades as a physician at USA Gymnastics while also working at Michigan State University, has admitted sexually assaulting gymnasts, possessing child pornography and molesting girls who sought medical treatment. He was sentenced in December to 60 years in federal prison for possessing child pornography and is facing another 40 to 125 years in prison after pleading guilty to assaulting seven girls.

Biles, now 20, called Nassar’s behavior “completely unacceptable, disgusting, and abusive, especially from someone whom I was told to trust.” She joins a list of high-profile gymnasts who have come out against Nassar, including six-time Olympic medalist Aly Raisman, 2012 all-around champion Gabby Douglas and two-time Olympic medalist McKayla Maroney.

Like her Olympic teammates, Biles detailed abuse by Nassar that he disguised as treatment.

“It is not normal to receive any type of treatment from a trusted team physician and refer to it horrifyingly as the ‘special’ treatment,” Biles wrote.

Biles is in the beginning stages of a return to competition, a journey that includes visits to the national team’s training center at the Karolyi Ranch north of Houston, where she said the abuse occurred.

“It is impossibly difficult to relive these experiences and it breaks my heart even more to think that as I work towards my dream of competing in Tokyo 2020, I will have to continually return to the same training facility where I was abused,” Biles wrote.

USA Gymnastics initially agreed to buy the Karolyi Ranch in the summer of August 2016, following the retirement of longtime national team coordinator Martha Karolyi but then backed out of the deal, though the national team continues to use the facility while options for a replacement are explored.

Biles says she initially wondered if she was to blame.

“For too long I’ve asked myself, ‘Was I too naive? Was it may fault?'” Biles wrote. “I now know the answer to those questions. No. No. It was not my fault. No, I will not and should not carry the guilt that belongs to Larry Nassar, USAG, and others.”

USA Gymnastics did not initially respond to a request for comment. The organization has taken several steps in recent months. President and CEO Steve Penny resigned under pressure last March and was replaced by Kerry Perry, who took over on Dec. 1.

The organization hired Toby Stark, a child welfare advocate, as its director of SafeSport last summer. Part of Stark’s mandate is educating members on rules, educational programs and reporting. The federation also adopted over 70 recommendations by Deborah Daniels, a former federal prosecutor who oversaw an extensive independent review.

That’s not far enough for some. Raisman has urged the organization to remove chairman of the board Paul Parilla among others. Biles, like Raisman, wants USA Gymnastics to take a deeper look at the conditions that allowed Nassar’s behavior to run unchecked for so long.

“We need to know why this was able to take place for so long and to so many of us,” Biles said. “We need to make sure something like this never happens again.”

READ MORE STORIES ON BLACKAMERICAWEB.COM:

• Has Kenya Moore Been Fired From ‘Real Housewives of Atlanta?’
• Inside Her Story: Jacque Reid Talks To DJuana Butler, Whose Viral Photo Helped A Determined Teen
• Four Different Ways You Can Wear A Leather Moto Jacket

GET THE HOTTEST STORIES STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX: 

There’s no time like the present to share a powerful story and actress Tisha Campbell-Martin knows it. The Simone Biles Story: Courage To Soar based off the Olympians book explores her life on the road to becoming an Olympic athlete.

In the recent sentence of gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar getting 40 to 175 years in prison for assaulting over 200 young athletes, the crew wanted to know if it had been included in the movie.

“No, you know what?  It wasn’t announced during the time we’re filming so nobody knew about it,” explained Martin. “But I’m really proud of her she’s really courageous.”

Campbell-Martin really connected with Biles and the other gymnast who have come forward about their sexual assault stories as she was raped as a child.

“I’m very open about me being raped when I was 3-years-old,” explained Martin. “I did a video on forgiveness with a song called Still Here. I was lucky enough to get a 5 page apology letter during that time from the person that did that to me.”

But she noted how hard it is for victims to come forward no matter who may be around them that they can trust. “You can’t imagine the amount of pressure that Simone or her teammates might have been under,” expressed Campbell Martin.

Tune in to The Simone Biles Story: Courage To Soar on Lifetime February 3 at 8/7c.

READ MORE STORIES ON BLACKAMERICAWEB.COM:

• Has Kenya Moore Been Fired From ‘Real Housewives of Atlanta?’
• Inside Her Story: Jacque Reid Talks To DJuana Butler, Whose Viral Photo Helped A Determined Teen
• Four Different Ways You Can Wear A Leather Moto Jacket

GET THE HOTTEST STORIES STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX: 

Larry Nassar the USA gymnastics doctor has been sentenced 40 to 175 years in prison for sexual assaulting over 200 athletes while working at Michigan State and for the US gymnastics team. He’ll face another sentencing as more victims continue to share their story.

Jacque Reid goes Inside Her Story with attorney Steven Drew who is representing over 100 victims in this case.

“Predators will stay around where they feel enabled. These organizations we feel enabled them. They silenced the victims,” explained Drew. “They were allowing him like when Tiffany Thomas came forward in 2000 and said he’s doing this they silenced her. When you allow that predator to stay around and reap the benefits, it’s terrible.”

Drew was in the court room when the judge allowed victims to come forward and talk to Nassar. “I was there for most of it because a lot of our clients were there. It was amazing what she did. She treated these women and young girls with respect,” explained Drew.”

A lot of his own clients were anonymous but after seeing other girls come forward to share their story along with the Me Too movement, they came forward. “I don’t want to be Jane Doe anymore. I want to tell my story,” explained Drew. “I want to look this man in the eye and tell him that what he did to me and how it’s affecting me.”

READ MORE STORIES ON BLACKAMERICAWEB.COM:

• Has Kenya Moore Been Fired From ‘Real Housewives of Atlanta?’
• Inside Her Story: Jacque Reid Talks To DJuana Butler, Whose Viral Photo Helped A Determined Teen
• Four Different Ways You Can Wear A Leather Moto Jacket

GET THE HOTTEST STORIES STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX: 

(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

BOSTON (AP) — The color choice wasn’t a coincidence. It was a statement. One Simone Biles felt compelled to make even as the organization she competes for struggles to find a compassionate and compelling message to sexual abuse survivors.

The Olympic champion designed the leotard she wore while winning her fifth US women’s gymnastics title Sunday, all the way down to the light shade of teal. It’s the designated color for survivors of sexual abuse, a group that includes Biles, who revealed in January she was among the victims of former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar.

“(The color) is for the survivors,” Biles said after becoming the first woman in 24 years to post the top score on every event on her way to a national championship. “I stand with all of them and I think it’s kind of special to unite (people).”

The 21-year-old came up with the idea eight months ago, long before she knew how her comeback following a post-Olympic break would go. In the end, it simultaneously served as a beacon to her otherworldly gymnastics while also highlighting the need to keep the Nassar victims at the forefront.

It’s a balance USA Gymnastics can’t seem to locate. Biles’ electric performance came hours after USA Gymnastics president Kerry Perry spent 22 minutes talking around the fallout of the Nassar scandal without offering much in the way of substance in her first extended public comments since taking over last December.

Perry danced around the question when asked if the organization planned to do anything specific to honor the survivors. Ultimately, USA Gymnastics did not, though Perry said she envisions a day when the organization and the victims stand “side by side.”

It’s already happening, and it has little to do with USA Gymnastics and everything to do with Biles.

She has opted against providing specifics about her experiences with Nassar. In a way, her boundary-pushing gymnastics and thoughtful fashion choice will send a stronger message than any words ever could.

Two years after winning four gold medals in at the 2016 Summer Games, Biles has somehow reached another level. She posted a two-day total of 119.850, more than six points ahead of reigning world champion Morgan Hurd and a full seven points clear of Riley McCusker. Biles’ margin of victory was greater than the gap between Hurd and 11th-place finisher Jordan Chiles.

“She pushes us,” McCusker said. “I’m honestly just in awe of her.”

Biles is the second woman to win nationals five times, joining Clara Schroth Lomady, who won six between 1945 and 1952. Biles also became the first woman since three-time Olympian Dominique Dawes in 1994 to wind up first on floor exercise, balance beam, vault and uneven bars.

“It was shocking then (in ’94) and it’s shocking now, too,” said high performance coordinator Tom Forster.

Forster and the rest of the world might want to get used to it. Again.

A year ago, Biles was wrapping up a post-Olympic whirlwind. She basked in the aftermath of her glorious run at the 2016 Olympics in which she brought home a record-tying five medals and entered the “first-name” pantheon in her sport, a club that includes fellow Olympic champions Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton.

Biles, however, is making a compelling case for a class all her own.

She didn’t get serious about a return until last fall, when she went back into training with new coaches in Laurent and Cecile Landi intent on not just returning to the form that made her one of the stars in Rio de Janeiro but seeing just how far she could push herself and her sport.

Two meets into her comeback, the possibilities are staggering. Her all-around score of 60.1 during the opening round Friday marked the highest in competition since she and Olympic teammate Aly Raisman both topped the 60-point barrier during the all-around finals in Brazil.

Biles worried a bit about her endurance after cramming two meets in a span of three weeks. She wasn’t quite as sharp Sunday as she was Friday — scoring a bit lower on bars and beam — but it hardly mattered. She was so far ahead coming into the finals, she needed do little more than stay upright to finish the night atop the podium.

“I kind of thought I’d be a nervous wreck and maybe fall apart,” Biles said. “Going into these events, I kept telling my family, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to be able to calm myself down the way I did before and handle the nerves.’ But so far, so good.”

Biles will get a chance to add to her 14 world championship medals when she leads Team USA to Qatar in October. Hurd, McCusker and vault specialist Jordan Chiles figure to be on the plane, too. Whoever earns the fifth spot will join a team heavily favored to continue its international supremacy.

The Americans have won every major international team competition since the 2011 world championships, a run that figures to continue indefinitely with Biles doing things no gymnast has ever done.

“You can’t be that lucky,” Forster said. “So that is just hard work and training and dedication and determination. It’s pretty awesome to witness.”

READ MORE STORIES ON BLACKAMERICAWEB.COM:

• Missouri Down To 1 Abortion Clinic Amid Legal Battle
• Sisters That Accused Cardi B Of Bar Brawl Banned From Strip Club
• Damon Wayans Reveals He Is Quitting ‘Lethal Weapon’

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER: 

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK. FOLLOW US ON TWITTER AND INSTAGRAM

 (AP Photo)

Olympic champion Simone Biles is upset about an anti-Nike tweet from USA Gymnastics interim president and CEO Mary Bono.

Bono was appointed Friday to hold the position while USA Gymnastics searches for a permanent successor to Kerry Perry, who resigned under pressure from the United States Olympic Committee in September after spending nine months on the job.

Biles responded Saturday to a tweet from Bono last month criticizing Nike following the release of its advertising campaign featuring former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Bono, a former Republican congresswoman, had posted a photo of herself drawing over a Nike logo on a golf shoe.

Biles quote-tweeted Bono’s photo and wrote: “(asterisk)mouth drop(asterisk) don’t worry, it’s not like we needed a smarter usa gymnastics president or any sponsors or anything.”

Bono deleted her tweet about five hours later, saying she regretted the post and respects “everyone’s views & fundamental right to express them.”

Nike is one of Biles’ sponsors.

Biles is among the more than 200 women who have come forward over the last two years claiming they were sexually abused by former team doctor Larry Nassar under the guise of treatment. Biles was critical of Perry for not being vocal enough in support of the survivors.

HEAD BACK TO THE BLACKAMERICAWEB.COM HOMEPAGE

(Photo Credit: PR Photos)

The interim CEO and president of USA Gymnastics has resigned four days into her job after she was slammed by Olympic champion Simone Biles for an anti-Colin Kaepernick/Nike post.

Mary Bono, a former GOP congresswoman from California, was criticized by Biles after she tweeted, and then deleted, a photo of herself drawing over a Nike logo on her golf shoes. She didn’t name Kaepernick but petty White folks have been posting such actions on social media in protest against the new Nike ad campaign featuring the former NFL quarterback.

The move represents yet more embarrassing headlines for the organization, which is still dealing with the aftermath of the Larry Nassar abuse scandal. Bono was also criticized by Olympic champion Aly Raisman for her connections to a law firm that she said helped “cover up” Nassar’s abuse.

Biles, who is sponsored by Nike, responded Saturday to Bono via Twitter: “*mouth drop* don’t worry, it’s not like we needed a smarter USA gymnastics president or any sponsors or anything.”

Bono apologized but soon after she announced her resignation.

“It is with profound regret, coupled with a deep love for the sport of gymnastics and respect for those who aspire to be great gymnasts, that I today tendered my resignation as the Interim CEO of USA Gymnastics,” said Bono in a statement. “My withdrawal comes in the wake of personal attacks that, left undefended, would have made my leading USAG a liability for the organization.”

In her resignation statement, Bono said she reacted strongly to Nike’s “sacrificing everything” slogan, as it reminded her of her late brother, a member of the military.

“It was an emotional reaction to the sponsor’s use of that phrase that caused me to tweet, and I regret that at the time I did not better clarify things,” she wrote, adding that Kaepernick “exercised his First Amendment right to kneel, I exercised mine.”

USA Gymnastics’ former team doctor Larry Nassar is serving up to 175 years in prison for multiple sex crimes against athletes, including Biles and Raisman.

HEAD BACK TO THE BLACKAMERICAWEB.COM HOMEPAGE

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner declared Nov. 27 Simone Biles Day and presented her with a declaration and a key to the city.

Biles is the most decorated American gymnast in history.

Earlier this month, she won four gold medals at the World Championships in Qatar, becoming the first American to win a medal in every event at Worlds.

HEAD BACK TO THE BLACKAMERICAWEB.COM HOMEPAGE

Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles is opening up for the first time publicly about how she’s coping with having to relive the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar.

“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,” Biles said Tuesday on “Good Morning America.” “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,” she added.

In January, Nassar was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison for sexually abusing over 150 gymnasts — including Biles, 21.  In January, she wrote about Nassar in a letter on Twitter.

“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.”

Continued Biles, “For too long I’ve asked myself, ‘Was I too naive? Was it my fault?’ I now know the answers to those questions. No. No, it was not my fault. No, I will not and should not carry the guilt that belongs to Larry Nassar, USAG, and others.”

The four-time Olympic gold medalist made history recently when she became the first female gymnast to win four World Championships. She also graces the cover of ESPN The Magazine’s blockbuster year-end issue.

HEAD BACK TO THE BLACKAMERICAWEB.COM HOMEPAGE

(AP Photo)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The mix of rage, disappointment and grief are still there. Just under the surface.

And while Simone Biles tries to stay focused on the healing process more than 18 months after the Olympic gymnastics champion revealed she was among the hundreds of athletes abused by disgraced sports doctor Larry Nassar, there are times when the massive systemic breakdown that allowed Nassar’s behavior to run unchecked for years becomes too much.

“It hits you like a train wreck,” Biles said Wednesday as she prepared for the U.S. championships.

One that leaves the greatest gymnast of her generation and the face of the U.S. Olympic movement ahead of the 2020 Games in a difficult spot.

She still loves competing, pushing herself and the boundaries of her sport in the process.

And yet the 22-year-old still finds herself working under the banner of USA Gymnastics and by extension the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. Both organizations were called out by Congress along with the FBI last week in a scathing report that detailed a series of catastrophic missteps that allowed Nassar — a longtime trainer with USA Gymnastics as well as Michigan State University — to continue to abuse patients even after athletes started questioning his methods in the summer of 2015.

RELATED: “I [Slept] All The Time Because It’s The Closest Thing To Death:” Simone Biles Explains How She Coped With Sexual Abuse

While Nassar is now behind bars for the rest of his life and USA Gymnastics has undergone a massive overhaul in leadership since the 2016 Olympics as it fights to retain its status as the sport’s national governing body, the scars remain fresh for Biles, though she knows that doesn’t make her different from the other women who were abused by Nassar under the guise of treatment.

“I don’t mean to cry,” the typically poised Biles said through tears two days before attempting to win her sixth national title. “But it’s hard coming here for an organization having had them failed us so many times. And we had one goal and we’ve done everything that they’ve asked us for, even when we didn’t want to and they couldn’t do one damn job. You had one job. You literally had one job and you couldn’t protect us.”

Biles is in therapy to help deal with the emotional fallout, well aware that progress will be slow and that a full recovery might not be possible.

“Everyone’s healing process is different and I think that’s the hardest part,” she said. “Because I feel like maybe I should be healed or this or that. But I feel like it will be an open wound for a really long time and it might not ever get closed or healed.”

So Biles is doing what she can, trying to find a balance between her pursuit to become the first woman in more than 50 years to repeat as Olympic champion while using her status as the face of her sport to effect change.

“When we tweet, it obviously goes a long way,” she said. “We’re blessed to be given a platform so that people will hear and listen. But you know, it’s not easy coming back to the sport. Coming back to the organization that has failed you. But you know, at this point, I just try to think, ‘I’m here as a professional athlete with my club team and stuff like that.’ Because it’s not easy being out here. I feel every day is a reminder of what I went through and what I’ve been through and what I’m going through and how I’ve come out of it.”

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER: 

The process in some ways is getting easier. There were days early in her return to training in the fall and winter of 2017 and early 2018 when she would quit in the middle of practice and walk out of the gym without a word to coaches Cecile and Laurent Landi as to why.

Those days are gone. Biles says therapy has helped her rediscover her joy for the sport she is redefining at every meet.

Still, the effects of her experience with Nassar, combined with the inability of USA Gymnastics, the USOPC and the FBI to act decisively when athletes alerted them about his conduct, linger. She can feel it when she is introduced to a new staff member at USA Gymnastics and sense it in her reluctance to meet with trainers after practice.

“How can we trust them?” Biles said. “They bring in new people all the time and I automatically put my foot up because the people that I had known for years had failed us.”

Asked if she’s optimistic that USA Gymnastics — which is on its fourth president and CEO since March 2017 and filed for bankruptcy last fall in an effort to halt the decertification process — can find a way forward, Biles shrugged.

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK. FOLLOW US ON TWITTER AND INSTAGRAM

Yes, the organization has taken several steps in addressing what it acknowledges was a toxic culture that played a role in Nassar hiding in plain sight, including updating its Safe Sport policy to provide better protection for athletes and clearer guidelines for coaches, parents, trainers and club owners on what constitutes abuse.

Yet Biles is wary. She has watched for the last three years as every step forward by USA Gymnastics is met with a step backward. Biles is intent on making sure she leaves gymnastics in a better place. She hopes the organization she competes for is sincere in its attempts to do the same.

For now, she doesn’t sound convinced.

“All we can do at this point is have faith that they’ll have our backs, they’ll do the right thing,” she said. “But at the end of the day it’s just a ticking time bomb. We’ll see. It’s a waiting game.”

HEAD BACK TO THE BLACKAMERICAWEB.COM HOMEPAGE

The news that the brother of Olympian Simone Biles was arrested for a triple murder in Cleveland shocked many people, but perhaps no one was shocked more than the gold medalist gymnast herself.

Tevin Biles-Thomas, who is enlisted in the Army, was taken into custody at Fort Stewart in Georgia on Thursday over his alleged role in a shooting at a New Year’s Eve party there last year. According to Cleveland.com, the 24-year-old man was charged with multiple counts of murder, voluntary manslaughter and felonious assault and one count of perjury. In addition to the shooting deaths, two other people were injured in the shooting that took place at an Airbnb rental.

Source: Liberty County Sheriff’s Office

A few hours after the news of the arrest broke, Biles, who was apparently not connected to any aspect of the shooting, took to Twitter to post a cryptic tweet that left many of her fans trying to decode it.

“[E]ating my feelings don’t talk to me,” she tweeted Thursday night.

Obviously, that sentiment could be referring to anything. But Biles’ Twitter followers seemed to offer her come cyber-understanding and sympathy without directly addressing the arrest of her brother.

Cleveland.com said it reached out to Biles for comment but the 22-year-old did not immediately respond.

While Tevin Biles-Thomas was being reported as the gymnastics star’s brother, her Team USA web page failed to mention him when listing her family members. It only lists Biles as having “two brothers, Ronald and Adam, and one sister, Adria.” According to Biography.com, Biles “and her sister, Adria, were raised by their grandfather Ron and grandmother Nellie, after their mother’s struggle with substance abuse problem. Ron and Nellie eventually officially adopted the two girls, and Biles calls her grandmother ‘Mom.’”

Before the arrest, Biles was enjoying a historic run of high-level competition in the past year. Most recently, she won the all-around gold medal during Women’s Senior competition at the 2019 U.S. Gymnastics Championships on Aug. 11.

Prior to that, she also took home the gold at the Artistic FIG Gymnastics World Championships last November. Most recently she announced last week that she was going to teach a gymnastics class. 

The young gymnastics veteran was expected to be leading Team USA in next year’s summer Olympics in Tokyo.

Tevin Biles-Thomas was being held without bail and was scheduled to be arraigned in Cleveland on Sept. 13.

HEAD BACK TO THE BLACKAMERICAWEB.COM HOMEPAGE

CLEVELAND (AP) — Olympic gymnastics champion Simone Biles says she’s struggling with the arrest of her brother who was charged in a shooting that left three dead.

She said in a tweet Monday that her heart aches for everyone involved, especially the victims and their families.

Authorities in Ohio say 24-year-old Tevin Biles-Thomas was arrested in Georgia last week after being indicted on murder, manslaughter and other charges in a New Year’s Eve party shooting.

Police in Cleveland say the shooting happened just before the end of 2018 when a group of men arrived uninvited to a party.

Three men were killed when gunfire broke out during a fight and two others were wounded.

Biles-Thomas is scheduled for arraignment in Cleveland on Sept. 13. No attorney is listed for him in court records.

HEAD BACK TO THE BLACKAMERICAWEB.COM HOMEPAGE

CLEVELAND (AP) — Olympic gymnastics champion Simone Biles says she’s struggling with the arrest of her brother who was charged in a shooting that left three dead.

She said in a tweet Monday that her heart aches for everyone involved, especially the victims and their families.

Authorities in Ohio say 24-year-old Tevin Biles-Thomas was arrested in Georgia last week after being indicted on murder, manslaughter and other charges in a New Year’s Eve party shooting.

Police in Cleveland say the shooting happened just before the end of 2018 when a group of men arrived uninvited to a party.

Three men were killed when gunfire broke out during a fight and two others were wounded.

Biles-Thomas is scheduled for arraignment in Cleveland on Sept. 13. No attorney is listed for him in court records.

Follow The Willie Moore Jr. Show on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram! 

STUTTGART, Germany (AP) — Simone Biles has already written her name into gymnastics history many times over. A few more times won’t hurt, though.

At the upcoming world championships in Germany, Biles can break the record for most medals won by any gymnast. More than that, she can write herself into the sport’s Code of Points forever.

Biles showed off her triple-twisting double-flip — the triple-double for short — when winning the U.S. title in August. If she lands it at worlds, it will go in the Code as “the Biles.” The same goes for her double-double beam dismount.

“Getting the skills named after me is really exciting, just to go out there and prove to myself that I can do them, especially under all of the pressure that will be there that night,” Biles said Tuesday. “I feel like putting my name on a skill is really rewarding just because it’ll be in the Code forever as well as the medals. It’s something that I can hold onto just because I’m the one that did it first, so it’s really exciting.”

Biles already has two skills in the Code, a floor exercise element from 2013 and a vault from last year’s world championships.

Biles goes to the championships tied with Russian Svetlana Khorkina for the most medals won by a woman with 20, and could also surpass Vitaly Scherbo’s record of 23 for the most medals by any gymnast.

It’s the last major championships before next year’s Olympics in Tokyo. With household names like track star Usain Bolt and swimming great Michael Phelps having retired since the last Olympics in Tokyo, she’ll be one of the Games’ undeniable standouts.

But she doesn’t want to think about that.

“I feel like if I were to label myself as a superstar, it would bring more expectations on me,” she said. “I would feel pressured, more in the limelight, rather than now. I just go out there and compete, try to represent Simone, not Simone Biles, whenever I go out there because at the end of the day I’m still a human being before I’m ‘Simone Biles the Superstar.'”

HEAD BACK TO THE BLACKAMERICAWEB.COM HOMEPAGE

On her journey to become the most decorated gymnast in the world, Simone Biles received an unexpected accolade.  During the world championships in Germany, the 22-year-old astonished the crowd with two jaw-dropping moves that will bear her name.

During her floor routine, she did a triple-double that included a double backflip and three twists. She then went to the balance beam and wowed the crowd with a double-double dismount.

Once the Federation of International Gymnastics approves it, will be official.

PHOTO: PR Photos

HEAD BACK TO THE BLACKAMERICAWEB.COM HOMEPAGE

STUTTGART, Germany (AP) — Simone Biles won a record 21st medal at the world gymnastics championships on Tuesday as the United States retained its women’s team all-around title.

It was Biles’ 15th career gold and broke a tie with Russian gymnast Svetlana Khorkina for the most medals overall by a woman at the world championships. She’s now two short of Vitaly Scherbo’s all-time record of 23 among men or women.

“Every year it feels better and better just because we’re adding to the legacy,” Biles said. “I feel like I never think of records. I just go out there and do what I came to do, which is compete for the country.”

The U.S. team scored 172.330 points to beat second-place Russia by 5.801 points and win its seventh consecutive team title at an Olympics or world championships.

The reward for winning was a battery-powered medal that lights up when it senses movement. Biles called it “the sickest medal we’ve ever had.”

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER: 

Biles posted the best individual scores on the vault, balance beam and floor.

“I think if I do the routine that I did tonight I’ll be more than happy” in Thursday’s individual all-around final, she said.

A fall for Sunisa Lee on balance beam in her world championship debut and a fumbled routine from Grace McCallum on the uneven bars left the U.S. with room for improvement, though both were strong on other apparatus.

“It’s just so surreal to come out here and end up on top with the strength of the team that we have, even after having a couple falls out there,” Biles said.

Russia became the first team to get within six points of the U.S. since China at the 2015 world championships, something which pleased Russian gymnast Angelina Melnikova.

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK. FOLLOW US ON TWITTER AND INSTAGRAM

“We’re happy that we got second because we can’t battle the Americans just yet, but today the gap was significantly lower than at the last few world championships,” Melnikova said.

Biles said other teams were “most definitely” closing in on the U.S.

“All of the teams have improved their difficulty over the last quad, and I think that’s really exciting to see the strength that they have.”

Italy ended its 69-year wait for a women’s team medal with bronze, as China failed to make the podium for the first time since the 2003 world championships.

China was fourth after a tough day for Liu Tingting, who fell twice on the uneven bars and again on the balance beam.

A fall on the beam mount by Italy’s last gymnast, Elisa Iorio, made for a tense finish but she recovered to score enough to stay ahead of China by 0.536 points.

It was a big recovery for Italy, which qualified in last place for the final.

“The goal for today was just to do better than qualification and how it goes, it goes,” Italian gymnast Giorgia Villa said through a translator.

HEAD BACK TO THE BLACKAMERICAWEB.COM HOMEPAGE

STUTTGART, Germany (AP) — Everyone counts Simone Biles’ medals except Simone Biles.

Winning her 24th and 25th world championship medals in beam and floor Sunday put the United States gymnast top of the all-time medal charts for the championships.

Biles won five gold medals this week. If she can repeat that at next year’s Olympics it would be a feat no female gymnast has managed at a single Games.

But for Biles, it’s not about the statistics.

RELATED: Simone Biles Gets Two More Moves Named After Her

“I can’t be more thrilled with the performance that I put out at this world championships,” she said. The medal record? “I’m not a number person.”

Aged 22, she’s a hero to younger gymnasts who grew up watching her routines.

“I’m second in the world after Simone Biles, and she’s obviously so amazing. And to be second is super crazy,” the 16-year-old U.S. gymnast Sunisa Lee said after taking silver behind Biles in Sunday’s floor exercise. “I don’t know how she’s been doing this for so long.”

Biles’ 24th medal came on the beam, breaking a tie for 23 with Belarusian gymnast Vitaly Scherbo.

RELATED: Biles Sets Record As US Wins World Gymnastics Team Gold

Biles scored 15.066 after a near-flawless routine, opting for a simpler dismount than the double-double she performed earlier in the championships.

That dismount is a sore point for Biles, who introduced the double-double to competition this season and had the skill officially named after her at the worlds — there are four Biles skills now. She feels the International Gymnastics Federation didn’t reward it with a high enough difficulty rating.

“It’s not worth the one-tenth (extra difficulty point). I’m sorry, it’s just not,” she said.

When her score was announced, guaranteeing the medal record, Biles leaped up from her seat with a broad smile and punched the air.

“I was really excited. I thought it was going to be at least a 14.8, 14.9, but to see 15, I was like, ‘Well, that’s pretty crazy,’ so I was very proud,” she said.

RELATED: Biles Aims To Write More History At Gymnastics Worlds

China took silver and bronze with Liu Tingting on 14.433 and Li Shijia on 14.3, respectively.

Biles won the floor exercise by a full point, scoring 15.133 despite a step out of bounds on one pass, and blew kisses to the audience after finishing her routine. Her U.S. teammate Lee won silver, her third medal of the championships, while Angelina Melnikova took bronze for Russia.

Biles’ winning routine came after a long wait when Brazilian gymnast Flavia Saraiva requested an inquiry into her score, during which time Biles sat on the edge of the floor.

Her earlier gold medals came in the team event Tuesday, the individual all-around Thursday and the vault Saturday.

A fifth place on uneven bars Saturday ended Biles’ chances of winning a medal in all six events, which she did last year in her comeback world championships after a sabbatical in 2017.

The uneven bars are historically Biles’ weakest event, though she still won a world silver in 2018, and two-time world champion Nina Derwael of Belgium is the strongest contender to stop a gold-medal sweep by Biles and the U.S. women’s team at the Olympics.

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER: 

Biles hasn’t confirmed whether she’ll continue to compete after next year’s Olympics, so this week may have been her last at the world championships. Blowing kisses to the crowd wasn’t meant as a goodbye to the competition, she said.

“It’s just a good floor routine, farewell to just the end of this world championship chapter here in Stuttgart,” she said.

Of her 25 career world medals, 19 are gold, against 12 of 23 for Scherbo.

Earlier, Russia’s Nikita Nagornyy won the men’s vault for his third gold medal of the championships. He’s the first European man to win the vault since 2010.

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK. FOLLOW US ON TWITTER AND INSTAGRAM

Nagornyy scored an average 14.966 from his two vaults, beating his friend and Russian teammate Artur Dalaloyan into second place. The bronze went to Ukraine’s Igor Radivilov.

The 38-year-old Romanian Marian Dragulescu, a four-time world champion, secured qualification for his fifth Olympics by placing fourth.

Britain won its second gold of the championships as Joe Fraser scored 15 points to win on parallel bars. Ahmet Önder was second for Turkey, with Japan’s Kazuma Kaya third. Max Whitlock won Britain’s first gold medal Saturday on pommel horse.

Arthur Mariano won gold for Brazil on the high bar, scoring 14.9 ahead of Tin Srbic for Croatia. Dalaloyan took the bronze to end the championships with four medals.

HEAD BACK TO THE BLACKAMERICAWEB.COM HOMEPAGE

STUTTGART, Germany (AP) — Next stop Tokyo for Simone Biles.

With Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps both retired since the last Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the U.S. gymnast will be the face of the games for much of the world.

In gymnastics, no one else comes close. Biles won five of the six gold medals at last week’s world championships and broke the all-time record of 25 medals by any gymnast, male or female.

“She’s just above anything else that we have seen in the sport,” five-time Olympic gold medalist Nadia Comaneci said of Biles on Sunday, praising “the domination that she has toward all the other gymnasts that competed here.”

Biles has not just got the talent. She’s got the character of an Olympic star.

There’s the laser-like focus on training, the same easygoing humor which endeared the world to Bolt, and — crucially in the modern era — a savvy social-media style.

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said Sunday that Biles’ star status would make gymnastics a must-see event at the Tokyo Olympics.

“You can have legends confirming their status as we have just seen with Simone Biles, this amazing performance there on the beam, but you also have new stars,” he said. “Gymnastics has all the ingredients to be top another time, I must say. A top Olympic event in Tokyo.”

Despite its dispute with Biles over the scoring for her new double-double beam dismount — its grade was lessened in part so as not to encourage less-skilled gymnasts to attempt the risky move — the International Gymnastics Federation knows Biles is crucial to the sport.

Labeling her “wonder woman” and “a hero,” FIG president Morinari Watanabe is keen for Biles not to retire after the Tokyo Olympics. “I hope she will continue after 2020, because she is an excellent athlete,” he said Sunday.

Biles is certainly the only athlete who could pull off her look in training at the U.S. nationals in August. She caused a stir with a leotard bearing her surname and a goat’s head picked out in sequins, a nod to “Greatest Of All Time.”

Few disagree, but Biles hasn’t yet won everyone over.

“There’s no need to turn her into some unbeatable queen. If I was 15 years younger, I’d definitely take the fight to the American,” the Russian gymnast Svetlana Khorkina said in comments on the Russian Olympic Committee website Thursday.

Khorkina won 20 world championship medals between 1994 and 2001 and held the women’s record until Biles overtook her Tuesday.

One record is likely to remain out of Biles’ reach, however. Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina won a record 15 Olympic medals between 1956 and 1964. Biles won five Olympic medals in Rio de Janeiro, and could add six more next year in Tokyo, but appears highly unlikely to stick around until the 2024 Olympics.

However, there’s another record to aim for. Matching her world championship performance from last week would make Biles the first female gymnast to win five gold medals at a single Olympics, and the first female athlete to do so in any sport since East German swimmer Kristin Otto in 1988.

After Biles pioneered a new beam dismount and triple-double on the floor this season, her coach Laurent Landi says he favors refining her existing routines for the Olympics over adding yet more upgrades.

“I can find plenty of (upgrades), but you need to be realistic and only the medals count at the end,” he said. “We don’t need to show off everything we can do.”

HEAD BACK TO THE BLACKAMERICAWEB.COM HOMEPAGE

Simone Biles wants to bring gymnastics to the masses and plans to bring some of her friends along for the ride.

The Olympic and world champion is headlining a tour in the fall of 2020 that will be a mixture of sports and entertainment intended to inspire the next generation of female athletes. The “Gold Over America” tour will visit more than 35 cities, including Biles’ hometown of Houston as well as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Simone Biles (@simonebiles) on Nov 16, 2019 at 4:51pm PST

The idea originated when Biles was in the early stages of her return to gymnastics in the fall of 2017 after taking a year off following her memorable performance at the 2016 Olympics, where she won four gold medals and five in all, becoming the face of her sport.

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER: 

“When we found out I was coming back, we kind of sat down and talked about things I would want to do,” Biles told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “They said it could be as small as starting a perfume line or maybe as big as a tour. I was like, ‘Actually, that would be pretty sweet. That would be the coolest thing ever.'”

The women-only roster will reunite Biles with longtime friend Katelyn Ohashi. Ohashi and Biles competed against each other growing up. Like Biles, Ohashi — the 2012 junior national champion — had designs on competing at the Olympics before injuries sidetracked her elite career. She instead attended UCLA, helping the Bruins win the national title in 2018 and becoming a viral sensation last winter with her Michael Jackson-themed floor routine.

“She made her mark,” Biles said. “She put college gymnastics and gymnastics … back on the map. She has impacted a lot of female gymnasts and I think this really brings us full circle.”

The tour will also finally allow Biles to join forces with former UCLA coach Val Kondos Field. Biles verbally committed to compete for the Bruins before turning professional in 2015. Kondos Field, who retired last spring, will serve as executive producer and supervising choreographer for the tour.

Biles said the goal is to bring the sport closer to the audience and also to loosen things up a bit. The plan is to utilize giant video screens, pyrotechnics and an in-house DJ.

“We want this to be completely different,” Biles said. “There will be dancing. Hopefully trampoline. Something people have never seen before.”

Biles captured five gold medals at the 2019 world championships to boost her career total to 25 medals overall, a record for both men and women. She is widely considered the greatest gymnast of all time and her face has been at the forefront of television promos for the 2020 Olympics, where she will try to become the first woman in more than 50 years to repeat as gymnastics champion.

While there are times she admits she’s still processing her fame, she’s is starting to understand her influence on the sport. It’s one of the reasons she agreed to headline the tour.

“In a way, it’s scary,” Biles said. “But at this point I also feel like it’s really exciting to have a platform that I do and to be able to do some of the things that I’ve been blessed with. I think it’s a combination of both. So I don’t know. We went back and forth on if we wanted my name in it, but you never know. I think it’ll be OK.”

USA Gymnastics typically coordinates a post-Olympic tour of its own, though there are no plans for one in 2020. The organization remains in bankruptcy court as it tries to reach a resolution with athletes who were sexually abused by former national team doctor Larry Nassar, who abused gymnasts — Biles included — under the guise of treatment.

Biles said she hasn’t spoken to anyone at USA Gymnastics directly about her tour but added, “I know they’re aware about it and they’ve been pretty supportive.”

“Simone is an amazing athlete and person, and having her own tour will give her a stage to showcase her skills and talent, as well as those of other women,” USA Gymnastics said in a statement.

Just how many athletes will join Biles and Ohashi remains uncertain.

“We’re looking at the top of the line and the best gymnasts from elite and maybe we did think from around the world, but that gets really, really difficult just because of the visas and all of that stuff,” Biles said. “Right now in the circle I know a couple of college gymnasts and then elite gymnasts (who will be on the tour), like world class.”

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK. FOLLOW US ON TWITTER AND INSTAGRAM

Biles is in the midst of a recovery period following her record-breaking performance at the world championships. She said she anticipates returning to competition in April before the US Championships, the Olympic Trials and then the Olympics next summer. Then it’s likely off to retirement and a chance to make an impact far beyond the competition floor, a process that will start with the tour, where she will have her hand in selecting the group and helping put the show together.

“I feel like everyone’s creative vision coming together is very unique,” she said. “And so I think once we get together and we have a set plan on what we’ll do, it’ll be very exciting.”

PHOTO: AP

HEAD BACK TO THE BLACKAMERICAWEB.COM HOMEPAGE