Simone Biles is in a league of her own 

Has there ever been an athlete, male or female, quite like Simone Biles, the greatest gymnast of all time? She is like something from another planet, so out of this world are the body-bending tricks she can accomplish on the floor, vault and bars. These are incomprehensible feats of agility, strength and grace, which were once the territory of the communist countries who could bully their young athletes into doing all sorts of outrageous manoeuvres on lethal-looking pieces of equipment. But not these days: it’s a sport for the world and Biles is its queen.

Biles is very human: she has had trouble with the gymnast’s equivalent of the ‘yips’ – known as the ‘twisties’ – when she couldn’t tell up from down, a condition familiar to many journalists, and had to take time out. Far worse, she was abused by Larry Nassar, the US gymnasts’ team doctor who was sentenced to 300 years for sexually assaulting children and possessing child pornography. 

Biles, who comes from Spring, Texas (a particularly cheering example of nominative determinism), and spent some years in care before being adopted at six by Ronald and Nellie Biles, whom she always credits with her success.