Simone Biles has understood gymnastics from day one.
Aimee Boorman, the woman who guided the superstar from the start of her career through to a five medal run at Rio 2016, told Olympics.com in an exclusive interview that Simone walked into the gym already almost having figured out gymnastics.
Boorman says Simone Bile’s brother taught her how to do a back handspring in their backyard, but she had never had any formal gymnastics training.
She says in those early years, Biles would just watch people do skills and go and try them.
The coach says for example, Biles had seen a cheerleader doing a back tuck in her practice one day and she said, ‘I can do that,’ but she had never done one before.
Biles just stood up, and did it just by watching, although it was not always that simple.
Boorman says as Biles progressed through the ranks and the skills became more difficult, Boorman used the same techniques to teach the now eight-time Olympic medallist as she would any other student.
Biles helped Team USA to its fourth-ever Olympic team title yesterday at the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
Boorman says in the early years, it was definitely just more of a visual thing for her, and when she started learning the really difficult skills, they broke them down just like they would for any athlete.
She says she had the drills in there, it just took her less time than the average person to put all the pieces together.
The coach adds Biles was able to figure it out faster.
[Source: olympics.com]
