SIMONE BILES’ AUNT DIED DURING THE OLYMPICS.

6 heartbreaking tragedies Olympic gymnasts faced that you never knew about.

Simone Biles and Suni Lee are some gymnasts who have dealt with various tragedies in their lives.
One of the athletes was sent into foster care, while another faced abuse at the hands of someone she trusted.
Some of these gymnasts have retired, but others went on to turn their trials into triumphs.

Athletes, gymnasts in particular, get seen as shining stars with incredible abilities. But like everyone else, they experience tragedies in their lives. From growing up in foster care to losing loved ones, they’ve seen it all. Here’s a breakdown of six female athletes who have faced immense challenges in their lives.

Simone Biles

Simone Biles found fame in 2013 at age 16 when she won the all-around title in gymnastics and two gold medals at the Antwerp Championship. Her introduction to the world was with a double layout move with a half-twist.

Simone Biles trains at Bannon’s Gymnastix on August 22, 2013, in Houston | Source: Getty Images

She would have found fame sooner in 2012 if she wasn’t too young to qualify for the London Olympics. In 2014, Simone won four gold medals at the World Championships and the same amount the following year.

Simone Biles celebrates her gold win during the medal ceremony after Women’s Balance Beam Final at the 45th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships on October 12, 2014, in Nanning, China | Source: Getty Images

Her first Olympic games were in Rio in 2016. There she won gold in vault, all-around, team, and floor exercises. She also went home with a bronze medal on the balance beam. In 2024, she’s taking part in the Paris Olympics as part of Team US.

While her life seems quite smooth, things haven’t always been easy for the Columbus, Ohio-born star. In 2021, the athlete, who started her gymnastics journey at age six, opened up about her difficult past in an interview.

Simone Biles performing her floor routine during the women’s individual all-around final at the world gymnastics championships in Stuttgart, Germany, on October 10, 2019 | Source: Getty Images

Growing up in Foster Care

Born on March 14, 1997, Simone revealed that growing up, her parents wanted her and her siblings to be their own people. They wanted them to take accountability and control of what they did. The star felt her parents’ teachings were why she and her siblings became successful in what they do.

They learned that even when one is at the top, you keep going and pushing boundaries. The artistic gymnast said her parents’ love and compassion for her and her siblings is something she hopes to have with her children one day.

Simone Biles, with her parents, Ron and Nellie Biles, as they wait for her ceremonial first pitch at a game on July 4, 2016, in Houston | Source: Getty Images

The man she calls her father, Ron Sr., said she was biologically his granddaughter. Simone’s birth mother is Ron Sr.’s daughter. The star said she didn’t remember much about being in foster care but knew they got taken from her mother.

At the time it happened, she thought they were going to return home but that wasn’t the case. She and her siblings, including Adria, Tevin, and Ashley, were lucky to be placed together in foster care. Adria recalled how close, scared, and confused they were when they were placed there.

The four clung to each other, and Simone would run to Tevin’s room to spend the night with him because she worried he’d disappear in the morning. The star’s instinct was to care for and look after Adria because she was the youngest sibling.

Simone’s grandmother, Nellie, recalled how nurturing and motherly the athlete was to Adria. The duo had a close bond that they still maintain today. Ironically, growing up, Adria thought her sister was bossy but now knows Simone was just trying to protect her.

Simone Biles’ sister, Adria, and their grandmother, Nellie, at the Artistic Gymnastics during the Rio Olympic Games, in Rio de Janeiro on August 14, 2016 | Source: Getty Images

The gymnast’s mother was unstable for them because she used illegal substances and drank a lot. The star and her siblings grew up focused on food because it was a scarcity. And while the gymnast recalled being “so hungry,” she also remembers seeing a street cat that would often come by to get fed.

She’d wonder where her food was, and that memory might be why she doesn’t like cats even today. Her mother always ensured the cat ate but not her children. Eventually, a social worker intervened in Simone and her siblings’ lives because neighbors raised concerns.

Simone Biles with her sister Adria while they train at Bannon’s Gymnastix on August 22, 2013, in Houston | Source: Getty Images

Adria and Simone were adopted by their grandparents, who became their mother and father, and they relocated to Texas. Their two older siblings, Tevin and Ashley, were adopted by their father’s sister, Aunt Harriet, and stayed in Ohio.

When the athlete and her sister were added to Nellie’s household, they instantly became a family of six. Nellie’s son, Ron Jr., noted how his parents had spent 18 years raising him and his brother before they had to start all over with Simone and her sister.

Simone Biles gets a kiss from her mother Nellie Biles as she trains at Bannon’s Gymnastix on August 22, 2013, in Houston | Source: Getty Images

The gymnast confessed that at some point she had a cage around her heart and a part of herself that she compartmentalized to keep herself safe. For her part, Nellie admitted that she had barriers when the two children came because they weren’t biologically hers.

Still, she did everything to nurture and mother them but “emotionally you still have to be there 100%, and I was not.” The loving parent prayed to find a bond between her and the two adopted children and one day realized she’d do anything for them.

Simone Biles competes on the balance beam during the Xfinity US Gymnastics Championships on June 2, 2024, in Fort Worth, Texas | Source: Getty Images

When Simone was competing professionally in gymnastics, tragedy struck again. In August 2021, while at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and after winning a bronze medal on the balance beam, the star revealed that her aunt had died “unexpectedly.”

The death occurred while she was in Japan, with the gymnast confessing that it wasn’t something she expected to happen while she was at the Olympic Games.

In light of the loss, she urged people to be a “little bit more mindful” of what they say online, “because you have no idea what these athletes are going through as well as (in) their sports.” The next athlete we’ll look at discovered she had a rare disease.

Shannon Miller

In 1996, Shannon Miller was the leader of the US team that won gold in Atlanta. The seven record-breaking female gymnasts were called the “Magnificent Seven,” and the gold they won was the first ever by a US Women’s Team.

The star was also the first American to ever win gold for the balance beam. She won seven Olympic, 59 international, and 49 national competition medals. In 1993 and 1994, she was the World All-Around Champion. She won gold in the Pan Am Games All-Around in 1995.

At the 1993-94 Worlds, the star took home a silver medal and five gold. And while she did not take home gold at the 1992 Olympics, she won five medals, the most by any American athlete at the Barcelona games. When she returned in 1996, she got a gold medal during a team effort and another one on the balance beam.

Shannon Miller after finishing her routine on the uneven bars during the Women’s Individual Apparatus Competition at the Goodwill Games, in St. Petersburg, Russia, on August 1, 994 | Source: Getty Images

Shannon studied at the University of Oklahoma and in 2003 finished her studies at the University of Houston and earned a Boston College law degree.

She never practiced as a lawyer but chose to work in broadcasting and offered gymnastics clinics. The athlete also founded Shannon Miller Lifestyle in 2010, a company that promotes healthy living, especially for women.

Shannon Miller finnishes her routine during the Women’s Uneven Bars Event at the US Gymnastics Championships in St. Louis, Missouri, on July 27, 2000 | Source: Getty Images

Shannon also works as a motivational speaker and is the President of the Shannon Miller Foundation, which focuses on fighting childhood obesity. Despite her extraordinary achievements, She has faced numerous life challenges, with her biggest being battling cancer.

Battling a Rare Disease

Shannon once opened up about her reasons for being vocal about her ovarian cancer diagnosis. She said being an advocate allowed her to talk about her diagnosis in a way that focused less on her and more on “what we could do with stories like mine.”

The athlete recalled lying in her hospital bed after being sent back amid her first week of chemotherapy because water and food couldn’t stay down. She’d tried around nine or ten different nausea medications, and none helped.

The nausea from her chemotherapy was one of the hardest things she faced and during the first week of her treatment, she couldn’t keep food down. Yoga helped her to control the nausea and to feel “more human again.”

She often couldn’t believe how weak she felt. For more than ten years, the star swung around uneven bars, but when she fought cancer, she “couldn’t open a bottle of water.”

The most difficult time for Shannon was before she received her diagnosis. A routine exam found a cyst the size of a baseball in her left ovary, which led to her undergoing all the tests available at the time. Her physician warned her not to undertake anything that could rupture or twist the cyst.

So, the artistic gymnast walked around like a zombie and was afraid to move. People tried to calm her fears by saying, “It would be okay” or “It’s probably nothing.” But her anxiousness focused on her understanding of what she was dealing with.

At the time, her son had turned a year old, and she kept thinking she needed to “get ahead of this” because the boy required his mother. Almost immediately after the cyst’s discovery, her gynecologist consulted with a gynecologic oncologist.

Two ultrasounds later, he knew the cyst wasn’t going to disappear on its own. Shannon was immediately scheduled for surgery, and only when she woke up in the hospital did she find out that she’d been diagnosed with a rare form of ovarian cancer.

Her emotions were torn, but she went from a victim mentality to the competitive one she knew through gymnastics and was ready to fight for her life. They scheduled her for an aggressive chemotherapy regimen, which she saw as a tool she could use to fight back.

On a daily schedule, she relied on the lessons she learned in gymnastics to get her through her diagnosis. She used things like goal setting, a positive attitude, perseverance, the importance of teamwork, visualization, and more to get by.

Her struggles were a daily trend where she fought against nausea, fear and doubt, neuropathy, and fatigue. She also battled with finding “my old self when my reflection said otherwise with no hair, no eyelashes or eyebrows, and skin as pale as could be.”

But, through her sport, she learned that struggle can often bring out one’s truest form. Shannon added, “We find out that we are much stronger than we ever imagined we could be.” In March 2020, the then 42-year-old had beaten her diagnosis.

She also had two children and focused on ensuring that women noticed their health. The star said she came from a shy background where she hardly spoke during her gymnastics training. But she realized that she needed to talk all day about her ovaries if it encouraged someone to get a check-up.

While working as a gymnast, she suffered injuries and faced challenges. But they didn’t prepare her as much as “the mental and emotional lessons she learned from the sport.” Things like goal setting and the others helped her immensely, especially during chemotherapy.

Setting small goals is how she managed to get through her diagnosis. Her chemotherapy goal on most days was to “get up, get dressed, and walk twice around the dining room table.” It was a good day if she managed to do those things, but she didn’t do it all the time.

Shannon Miller at the ESPY Awards on July 10, 2019, in Los Angeles, California | Source: Getty Images

Having a great medical team was important to her while she had cancer. But she also had friends, family, and neighbors who were willing to help with the smallest and biggest things. Shannon exercised by taking walks, even if it was only five minutes.

During her battle, she had times when she felt like she’d lost herself and her identity, but being able to move her body made her feel like herself again. Her goal wasn’t fitness but to keep her strength up. The star said, “It was more life-sustaining than thinking about fitness as being in shape.”

Sunisa Lee

Sunisa “Suni” Lee was born on March 9, 2003, in Saint Paul, Minnesota, to her mother, Yeev Thoj. She was two years old when her mother met John Lee, a recently divorced man with two children, Jonah and Shyenne.

Together the couple welcomed Evionn, Lucky, and Noah. As a child, Suni would tumble around the house and backyard until her parents’ friends asked if she was in gymnastics. Taking her possible talent seriously, a family friend arranged a meeting with a Midwest Gymnastics Center coach.

Yeev Thoj and John Lee react after Sunisa Lee competed on balance beam during the Women’s All-Around Gymnastics Final at the Tokyo Olympic Games on July 29, 2021, in Oakdale, Minnesota | Source: Getty Images

Yeev once noted how her daughter underwent some tests before the center decided to keep her. She started her training at age six. Due to her dedication to the sport, July 30, 2023, was declared “Suni Lee Day” by the governor of her home state.

The mayor of Saint Paul also made the same declaration in the city, where a bronze bust of Suni stands in a park after being unveiled during a celebration. In 2021, she was named Sports Illustrated Female Athlete of the Year, and the following year she was the Women’s Sports Foundation’s Individual Sportswoman of the Year.

Simone Biles and her teammate Sunisa Lee after winning the gold medal in the womens all-around final at the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Stuttgart, southern Germany, on October 10, 2019 | Source: Getty Images

During her Olympic debut at the 2020 Tokyo Games, she won the all-around gold medal, making her the first Asian-American female gymnast to do so. She is also the first Hmong American to compete at the Olympic Games.

Suni won a bronze medal in the uneven bars and a silver through a team effort. Besides suffering personal health issues during her gymnastic career, she’s also experienced family trials.

Sunisa Lee of Team US competes in the floor exercise during the Women’s Qualification of the Tokyo Olympic Games on July 25, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan | Source: Getty Images

Overcoming Kidney Health Issues

In June 2021, John watched Suni secure her Tokyo Olympics spot after placing second behind Simone at the Olympic Trials. The parent was emotional because it was one of the rare times he was able to watch her compete live since his 2019 accident.

That year, two days before the athlete competed at the US National Gymnastics Championships in August 2019, her father had an accident. He fell off a ladder while assisting a neighbor to trim a tree. John became paralyzed from the chest down.