Everything We Know About Simone Biles' Adoption Journey

A record-breaking champion and medal-winning athlete, Simone Biles is considered one of the greatest gymnasts of all time. Not only is she the most decorated in her sport, having 25 World Championship medals and seven Olympic medals to her name, but she also made history back in 2015 by becoming the first woman to consecutively win three World All-Around titles.

While she is immensely accomplished and world-renowned today, Biles has faced significant adversity on the road to greatness. This includes the hardships of her early childhood, with the Ohio native entering foster care with her three siblings when she was only three years old. Later, she and her sister Adria were adopted by their maternal grandparents, a change that significantly impacted Biles and helped contribute to her stunning transformation.

"My parents saved me," Biles said while competing on "Dancing with the Stars" in 2017. "They've set huge examples of how to treat other people, and they've been there to support me since day one. There's nothing I could say to them to thank them enough" (per Today).

Simone Biles' adoption journey began with her entry into the foster care system, and the gymnast opened up about the circumstances that led to her change in guardianship. "Growing up, my biological mom was suffering from drug and alcohol abuse," Biles explained on "DWTS." "She was in and out of jail. I never had mom to run to. I do remember always being hungry and afraid" (per Today).

On the Facebook series "Simone vs Herself," the Olympian opened up about the food insecurity that she and her siblings faced as children, recalling that she would watch as a cat was fed while she went hungry. "I think that's where it stemmed, [why] I don't like cats is because [of] this frickin' street cat," Biles said during the "Who Am I?" episode. "She always fed it, but she never fed us."

The Ohio native went on to explain that she didn't have a lot of memories from her time in foster care, but that she found comfort in her siblings during the frightening change. Biles entered foster care with her two older siblings, Ashley and Tevin, and her younger sister, Adria. "We were very fortunate that you got to stay with your siblings," Simone said. "Because a lot of the time you either get regrouped from home to home to home or you and your siblings get split up."

After spending three years in foster care, Simone Biles and her siblings were adopted by members of their biological family. While her older siblings were adopted by their paternal aunt, Simone and her sister Adria were taken in by their maternal grandparents Ronald and Nellie Biles. Ronald, the biological father of Simone's mother, married Nellie in 1977, with the couple going on to have two children together: Ronald Jr. and Adam.

Simone and Adria relocated from Ohio to Texas to join the family when the future gymnast was only six years old. It was an adjustment for everyone involved, but the two girls were embraced by their biological grandparents as their own children. In "Simone vs. Herself," Nellie opened up about the complexity of this experience, explaining that she prayed for a motherly connection with the young Biles. "You wake up one day and you realize that you would do anything for these children and that you would die for these children," she explained. "That's when you know you're truly a mother."

Simone, who refers to Ronald and Nellie as her mom and dad, has described her adoption journey as pivotal to the person she's become. "Being separated from my biological mom, being placed in foster care before I officially got adopted by my grandparents, it just set me up for a better route at life," the gymnast said. "I would still be Simone Biles, probably not Simone Biles that everybody else knows, the world knows ... I definitely got a second shot at life."