The Olympics give us the opportunity to see many athletes that are at the top of their game. They have practiced for years and it seems as if they have everything going for them.
In reality, however, there are many people in the spotlight who have some tragic stories behind them. This includes some of the Olympic gymnasts, and we are going to share their stories with you.
Simone Biles
When Simone was only 16 years old back in 2013, she won an all-around title for gymnastics at the Antwerp Championship. This skyrocketed her to fame with a signature move of the double layout with a half twist.
In 2012, she may have been able to go to the London Olympics but she wasn’t old enough. She would have to wait but in the meantime, she won a number of gold medals at the world championships.
Simone is also somebody who has had a difficult past. She was born in 1997 and her parents wanted her and her siblings to take accountability for their own actions. She feels that that was part of her success.
Her father, Ron Senior was actually her biological grandfather. Her birth mother is his daughter. She doesn’t remember a lot about being in foster care but she knew that her mother didn’t care for her.
She thought that she was going home at some point but they were fortunate enough to be placed in foster care, despite the fact that they were confused and frightened at the time. She stuck with her siblings for support.
Her mother had used illegal substances and had a problem with drinking so she wasn’t very stable for the family. It was a difficult youth for Simone, but she turned out well in the end.
Shannon Miller
Shannon Miller won the gold in Atlanta in 1996 as the leader of the US team. She was part of a group known as the Magnificat Seven and won the first-ever gold for the US women’s team.
She studied at the University of Oklahoma and the University of Houston, where she earned a Boston College law degree. Despite never practicing as a lawyer, she still had a very successful life.
Shannon continues to work as a motivational speaker, focusing on childhood obesity. She has had a number of challenges in life, including having cancer.
She spoke about her reasons for helping others and talked about her battle with ovarian cancer. She can remember having a struggle on her hands when she was going through chemotherapy. The nausea was quite difficult for her.
Her son was only a year old at the time and she knew that she had to get through it somehow. After figuring out that the problem wasn’t going to go away, she began the fight. She also relied on the lessons that she learned from being a gymnast, including having a positive attitude and persevering.
She did face challenges along the way but she continues to help others to set goals and to work through their difficulties as much as possible.
Sunisa Lee
Sunisa Lee was born in 2023 in Minnesota. When she was two years old, her mother met a recently divorced man, John Lee and he had two children. They had a child together, and it wasn’t long before Sunisa was showing her incredible talents.
She did have a number of difficulties when she was growing up. There was a lot of attention focused on her due to her unique skills as an athlete. She was the Sports Illustrated female athlete of the year in 2021 and in 2023, her local community declared one day Suni Lee Day.
Two years prior to her competing at the US national gymnastics championship, her father fell off a ladder while trimming the tree. He was then paralyzed from the chest down.
In addition, two kidney problems occurred for the gymnast and she learned that they were hereditary. Her brother passed away from kidney failure at the age of 45 and her mother was only 60 when she died from the same illness.
They thought that she had an allergic reaction at first but they discovered that her kidneys were not operating properly. She had barely urinated for two weeks and was then diagnosed with kidney disease.
This was not something that she could simply take a pill form to have them go away. She gained a considerable amount of weight but ended up going back to the gym again.
She had stopped training for the Olympics in Paris at one point but she decided to push ahead. In 2023 she went to two national meets and won two medals. This was all while she was on a low-sodium diet.
Her parents were there to watch her as she secured a spot on the Olympic team. She broke down in tears, and is thankful that she was able to work through all of her problems.
Jessica Hogg
Jessica Hogg represents Great Britain in the Olympics as an artistic gymnast. She was very active in gymnastics and has since retired.
Unfortunately, Jessica was only 18 months old when her mother died from a brain tumor. Her father had been absent since she was born so her grandparents, Pamela and Sid Downing took her in.
They had to take on the role of guardians for her and her older sister. Her grandmother was a great support for her but unfortunately, she died suddenly in 2010.
Jessica was able to deal with this tragedy by keeping busy. After she lost her grandmother, she was permitted to miss training sessions if necessary. She only missed two days before returning.
Shilese Jones
Shilese Jones has been with the US national gymnastics team since 2007 as an artistic gymnast. She was first recognized in 2014 when she was a junior gymnast at the age of 12.
This didn’t surprise her parents, who said that she was always flipping around the house when she was a very young girl. That is when they decided she should go to the gym but she didn’t do well at first.
Eventually, she was able to excel at gymnastics and took part in the Pan-American championships in 2018. She has also been part of the world championships in 2022 – 2023.
Shilese shared some very difficult news on Instagram in 2021. She shared a picture of herself lying on her father’s chest and said that he had died the day before.
She spoke about him as being her motivation and her everything. They had a very strong bond and it was devastating to see him die as a result of kidney disease.
She thought of him as being the best father and was honored that he got to see her performing in the way that she could. That is when she vowed she would continue to make him proud, and she is doing a good job of that today.
McKayla Maroney
McKayla Maroney lives in Niguel and began gymnastics when she was a child. She won a gold in the floor exercise at the Pan-American games in 2010.
The year before she was in the visa championships and won a gold for Bolton the silver in the floor exercise. She took gold in the vault in 2012 at the US Olympic trials.
Unfortunately, she spoke about how she was violated by a doctor when she was only 13 years old. This was the gymnastics team Dr. Larry Nassar, who said that he was going to do a checkup.
This abuse continued to happen and he would remind her that nobody would believe her if she told people about it. She thought that made sense and said she didn’t want to tell anyone.
At first, she didn’t think that anyone would understand or even believe what was happening. Unfortunately, this continued to go on hundreds of times, every time she saw him over the next few years. Eventually, he was put behind bars