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Summary
- Simone Biles is Catholic, raised in the faith by her grandparents, Ron and Nellie Biles, who adopted her and her sister in 2003.
- News reports in 2016 said she kept Sundays free from training to go to church with her family in Spring, Texas.
- She told Us Weekly in 2016 that she carries a rosary her mother got for her at church.
- Religion News Service reported in 2016 that she lights a candle to St. Sebastian, the patron saint of athletes, before meets; she has said she sometimes travels with a statue of him.
- In 2021 she said she felt “called by God” to keep competing.
- In August 2021 she said she is “very much pro-choice,” a view that differs from Catholic teaching.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- “Simone Biles keeps rosary close when she competes,” Catholic News Service in the Arlington Catholic Herald, August 10, 2016. https://www.catholicherald.com/article/local/schools/simone-biles-keeps-rosary-close-when-she-competes/
- Mary Farrow, “These two game-changing Olympians are serious Catholics,” Catholic News Agency, August 9, 2016. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/34330/these-two-game-changing-olympians-are-serious-catholics
- Kimberly Winston, “St. Sebastian must work for Catholic Biles,” Religion News Service in the Houston Chronicle, August 13, 2016. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/lifestyle/houston-belief/article/St-Sebastion-must-work-for-Catholic-Biles-9141044.php
- Christine Rousselle, “Catholic gymnast Simone Biles says she is ‘pro-choice’ in social media post,” Catholic News Agency, August 10, 2021. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/248640/catholic-gymnast-simone-biles-says-she-is-pro-choice-in-social-media-post
- “Simone Biles,” Wikipedia (birth, adoption, family’s Catholic faith). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_Biles
- “How to Pray the Rosary,” United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. https://www.usccb.org/how-to-pray-the-rosary
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 2270. https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P7Z.HTM
- Bible quotations: Luke 1:28, 42 (Douay-Rheims). https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+1:28%3BLuke+1:42&version=DRA
