By Michael Matt, editor of The Remnant:
Simone Arianne Biles was born March 14, 1997. The other night she became the 2016 Olympic individual all-around champion. But this little dynamo is no stranger to winning. She is a three-time world all-around champion, three-time world floor champion, two-time world balance beam champion, four-time US national all-around champion, and a member of the gold medal-winning American teams at the 2014, the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships and the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
More importantly from our perspective, Simone Biles is a Roman Catholic home-schooler who might have been a victim of abortion had her birth mother been someone other than Shannon Biles who suffered from drug and alcohol addiction but, rather than aborting her baby, gave Simone up for adoption.
The story is like something out of a feel-good movie, with little Simone—rather than ending up in a dumpster or sucked into a vacuum or having her head stabbed by an abortion doctor—getting a chance to live, and then going on to become the first woman in history to win three consecutive world all-around titles and, by the way, the most decorated American female gymnast in World Championships history, with a total of fourteen medals, ten of them gold.
Why? Because she was taken in by a loving and generous family who believed in her, challenged her, and showed her how to love Christ and keep her Catholic faith — all of which was only possible because Simone’s birth mother cared more for the sanctity of the life of her child than her own “reproductive rights as a woman.”
In 2003 Simone’s grandparents took the child and her sister, Adria, out of foster care, in order to give them a loving home and a chance to thrive despite all they’d been through. Simone’s grandfather is a retired air traffic controller while her grandmother is the former co-owner of a chain of nursing homes, and a woman obviously blessed with great compassion.
Simone Biles spent all her secondary education as a homeschooler and graduated in the summer of 2015. The family is Roman Catholic, and the little gymnast, who is now taking the world by storm, lights a votive candle to St. Sebastian (patron saint of athletes) before all of her meets. She also keeps her rosary with her at all times, and isn’t afraid to proudly admit it.
The 19-year-old told US Weekly that her mother gave her the cherished rosary, and that she keeps it with her at all times, praying before every competition “just in case.”
Some of Simone’s recent tweets are quite telling:
I’m not much of an Olympics guy. I got tired of all the politically correct claptrap that goes along with the games. I’ve discouraged my own children from paying any attention to them, in fact. But I do find it singularly annoying when the “up close and personal” stories that dominate the Olympic headlines are about Muslim athletes or transgenders or whatever, and then a story like this is ignored completely—the most decorated woman gymnast in Rio is an adopted, home-educated, Roman Catholic who prays the rosary and relies on God and His blessed Mother to help make her the best person and athlete she can be.
Kind of a big deal, unless you’re one of the cold chroniclers of Christophobia in the mainstream media—in which case it’s cover-up time.
Whatever. The media will do what they do best. But the story of Simone Biles is a little shaft of light in a big world of darkness. It’s so encouraging to see that, despite everything, little miracles like this are still happening every day and all over the world.
A drug-addicted alcoholic living in Cleveland had enough goodness left in her soul to do the right thing, even when the whole world was telling her to do the wrong thing. She kept the child, put her up for adoption, and great things happened.
God is good and all is not lost. All glory and honor to Him, and may He bless and keep Shannon Biles for giving a dreary world something good to believe in for a change — a brilliant little gymnast who’s proudly in love with Jesus Christ.
Catholicism Pure & Simple 
Beautiful, beautiful story! Michael is so right in pointing out that the essential Catholic roots of the life story of Simone Biles was not mentioned in the secular media. Typical.
This sweet talented girl was an absolute joy to watch.
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“… an absolute joy to watch.”
I unreservedly give you that joy; but I still consider the whole extravaganza a tawdry, corrupt pagan spectacle, a latter day Circus Maximus. The last time I sat glued in front of a device that receives electronic signals transmitted through the ether and reproduces them on a screen to watch the Olympics was back in 1976 when I was confined to a mental institution for several months. I then had the dubious pleasure of seeing Caitlyn Jenner pretend she was a man as she strutted and pranced around the field. Of course, I didn’t realize back then that she wasn’t a real man.
…Re the asylum bit – I will tell you the rest of the story one day – perhaps 🙂
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“I still consider the whole extravaganza a tawdry, corrupt pagan spectacle, a latter day Circus Maximus”
Aaah, JH, just when I was jumping up and down at some fantastic Olympic competitions on this evening! Thanks to spoilsports like you 😉 I’m now getting guilty feelings that I’m giving it too much attention.
But, wow, what you missed at the gymnasium, velodrome and golf course in Rio today (via those “electronic signals transmitted… etcetera”)!! And right now the men’s singles tennis final is on!
I have no recollection of “Caitlyn” Jenner’s participation in the 1976 Olympics, but he/she is reaaaally freaky-looking now after yet more plastic surgery. Yuk!
Returning to the story of the Catholic background of lovely Simone Biles, I’ve noticed several athletes who make a discreet sign of the Cross before or after participating, sometimes looking heavenwards with a prayer on their lips. Not everyone is a “pagan”, DG.
Meanwhile we await with great interest your asylum story. Perhaps?
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Oh, I should stop being holier than thou about the Olympics. I never watch sports, but what the heck. Regarding the funny farm (it really was a farm) I worked there as a groundskeeper in the summer of ’76 and was “confined” – so to speak – to said grounds until the end of my shift each day (ha!) but due to vacationing full-time staff, I was assigned another job whilst the Olympics were on, which involved wheeling cafeteria trolleys from the kitchen to the wards at lunch time. That was it. One hour of work each day and Bob’s your uncle. The remaining seven hours were spent in front of that receiving device. Or playing ping pong. A civil service job naturally 🙂
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Usain Bolt is Catholic, makes the sign of the Cross before every race, and wears the Miraculous Medal! And this has not, to my knowledge, been mentioned by the media. I heard one commentator talking about the habits of one runner before the race, and a deafening silence descended when it came to Usain Bolt’s custom of making the sign of the Cross. It doesn’t fit the narrative….
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