SIMONE BILES, CATHOLIC GYMNAST, QUEEN OF RIO2016 OLYMPIC GYMNASTICS, PRAYS THE ROSARY AND GOES TO MASS.
Dear friends, Simone Biles ends her Rio 2016 Olympics campaign winning 4 gold (team, individual, floor, vault) and 1 bronze (balance beam) medals and could rightly be proclaimed as the Queen of Olympic Gymnastics 2016.
Congratulations, Simone! May your success and fame keep you well-grounded in faith and humility, converting your efforts into prayer when you offer it to God and seeking God’s glory above anything else. That way, aside from being a successful gymnast, you would be a great example not only to those who had a difficult childhood but to all Catholic youth as well, who could look to you as a model to follow being a faithful follower of Christ.
PHOTO CREDIT: REUTERS
Below you have my English translation of an article originally in Spanish, taken from “Religion y Libertad” which speaks about Simone Biles. Happy reading and God bless!
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Simone Biles is about to become a legend in the Olympics. The petite American gymnast (1.45 meters) is 19 years old and, at the very beginning of the Olympic competition, is already been expected to be the queen of Rio 2016, and also considered by many experts to be the undisputed successor to the legendary Nadia Comaneci.
As part of the US gymnastics team, Biles is the favorite in the individual all-around competition, vault, balance beam, floor exercise and team competition. The uneven bars event, however, is up for grabs. So far, Biles is the only one with three consecutive world titles in the all-around competition and with ten world victory crowns in different events.
The successor to Nadia Comaneci
The first 10 Olympic history score was obtained by a small and delicate Romanian, Nadia Comaneci during the Montreal Olympics in 1976. She stunned the world by her immense talent which resulted in the five medals (3 of them were gold). She was only 14 years old then but eventually concluded her career with five Olympic titles.
Forty years later, Biles, who aims to win five Rio gold medals, a goal no other athlete has achieved in the Games, is considered by world sports critics as the successor to the Romanian. Not surprisingly, Biles has been trained in a gym at Texas run by the same coach who led Comaneci to the top, Bela Karolyi.
The coach who helped Comaneci is convinced that Biles’ explosiveness, talent and rhythm will result to the succession. “At that time, Nadia was considered absolute perfection. Then, Mary Lou Retton (individual contest champion in Los Angeles in 1984) was seen as one of the wonders of the history of women’s gymnastics, and now is the time to Simone,” the veteran coach ventured.
On her part, Retton, the idol of American gymnastics strongly bets for Biles, saying: “I never saw someone with more talent. Nobody can beat her.”
Her mother, an alcoholic; cared for by social services
For Simone, life has never been easy. Her story is that of a girl born in Ohio whose mother (and mother of six) had been hit hard by drugs and alcohol. When she was only three years, the girl had to be separated from her mother and placed under the foster care of social services.
Then her grandparents who lived in Texas, gladly took of her and her sister, a gymnast as well, and then finally adopted both girls.
With that, her life began to take a dramatic turn … and for always. At six years old, she went to the gym of the wife of Comaneci’s coach Aimee Boorman, and since then has not separated herself from her coach, who saw in Biles an unprecedented potential.
She brings the key to her success in her bag
US Weekly magazine recently published an article about things that Simone carries in her bag when going to a competition. She, who is considered “fairly organized,” allowed it to be photographed
Apart from a small duffel bag which she carries in her workouts in Spring, Texas, she also has a keychain that says “Future Olympian” which her teammates gave her, a wallet which was given to her by her parents, a headset to listen to music (she listens to Ariana and loves G. Eazy and Chris Brown), a smartphone, hairbrush, car keys, hand sanitizer, and a …
PHOTO CREDIT: US MAGAZINE
HOLY ROSARY! “My mother (Simone calls her grandparents” Mom and Dad “), Nellie, gave me a rosary in the church. I don’t use it to pray before a competition. I’ll just pray normally to myself, but I have it there in case,” she said to the American magazine when asked about the rosary in her purse.
Her great support: her faith and family
In addition to praying the rosary, Simone attends Sunday Mass with her parents, who have played a key role in her life from her youth and have supported wholeheartedly in all her efforts.
To become a star of gymnastics, “requires a lot of dedication, a lot of sacrifices. We have canceled vacations. On our vacation, we traveled with Simone (for competitions). It has been a sacrifice for us because this is something which our daughter enjoys and feels so passionate about. We are willing to go with her on this trip, “confesses her mother Nellie.
In spite of her busy schedule, she goes with her parents to Sunday Mass.
With faith and family , we will surely see in the coming days how Simone Bile becomes the great queen of gymnastics in Rio 2016 …
ARTICLE SOURCE: http://www.religionenlibertad.com/simone-biles-reina-gimnasia-las-olimpiadas-rio-51307.htm
ORIGINAL PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.thebitbag.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Team-USA-Simone-Biles.jpg
US WEEKLY (BAG CONTENTS)