Simone Biles to Part Ways with her Longtime Coach Aimee Boorman

When Simone Biles won five medals (four of which are gold) at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, there was one woman who always stood by her side. Many might not have noticed her, but Aimee Boorman, Simone’s coach of 11 years, was on the sidelines supporting her and giving her proper guidance. 

Boorman has been Simone’s personal coach for more than a decade and is no doubt the driving force behind the Olympic success of the 19-year-old gymnast.

On Monday, Aimee Boorman mentioned that she was about to leave the World Champions Centre, the 56,000 square feet gymnastics facility in Spring, Texas, owned by Simone’s parents, Ron and Nellie Biles.

The reason behind the end of their coach-gymnast relationship isn’t down to the differences between the pair. Boorman’s husband has been offered a job opportunity in Florida, causing the family to move out of Houston.

Boorman mentioned that it will not only be an opportunity for her husband, but for herself also. She will now work as the executive director of women’s gymnastics at Evo Athletics in Sarasota, Florida.

“My vision for what a gymnastics facility should be is reflected in Evo,” Boorman stated. “Not only having world-class equipment and staff, but the dedication to exceeding the needs of all members of the Evo family, athletes, their families’ coaches and staff while providing a platform for developing young athletes to reach their great potential.”

Simone Biles, who has trained under Boorman since she was eight, has experienced the fruit of her coaching. Ever since, the two trained together every day for years. Boorman’s outstanding coaching skills led the young gymnast to three world all-around championship titles and four U.S. All-around gold medals.

The 19-year-old American gymnast will take a brief break for now before deciding whether or not to return to the sport.

“We were both sad, but Biles understands that life moves on and she knows that if she plans to continue in gymnastics… I will always be willing to coach her,” Boorman stated. “I will be there as a mentor.”

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Simone Biles’ Outstanding Performances in Rio Boosts Gymnastics’ Popularity

Several gymnastics facilities across the United States have reported a significant surge in enrollment after the gold medal-winning performances of the 19-year-old gymnast Simone Biles at the competition recently ended in Rio last week.

According to the owner of the Klub Gymnastics in Los Angeles, Michael Eschenbrenner, the Summer Olympics usually brings a 20% boost in the amount of gymnastics newcomers in their facility. But this year, “it’s going to be at least that because of the whole Simone Biles amazingness.”

Simone Biles has been one of the most successful gymnastics in the U.S., having won a total of 4 individual Olympic gold medals and one bronze despite being a first time competitor in the Summer Olympic Games. She also owns a large number of World Championships titles, which adds up to her huge collection of gymnastics achievements.

Her success in the sport encouraged the young generation to try out the sport themselves. Watching her perform stunning routines in the Rio Olympic Arena inspired young gymnastics aspirants to be just like her someday.

Normally, the post-Olympics surge doesn’t come until the summer session ends and the school starts. But that clearly have changed this season, with more than 1,400 weekly enrollees at Klub Gymnastics – “higher than we’ve ever been,” says Eschenbrenner.

There is typically a surge in enrollment after an Olympic Games,” said USA Gymnastics’ spokeswoman, Jennifer Teitell. “For example, the women’s program had over 16,000 new athletes in 2012-2013 which was a 22% growth over the previous year.”

Names such as Simone Biles and Aly Raisman have encouraged a generation to try out gymnastics, a sport that’s often overlooked outside the Olympic season.

“Gymnastics is one of the most popular Olympic sports. All the kids are watching it, they see that and decide that’s what they want to do,” a coach in a gymnastics facility in Huntington said. 

After witnessing her impressive performances in the 2016 Rio Olympics, everyone suddenly wants to be just like Simone Biles.

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USA Gymnast Simone Biles Aims for Olympic Gold

Simone’s mother, Nellie Biles, always knew where to find Simone whenever her daughter is missing. If 6-year-old Simone wasn’t performing back flips on their backyard, she probably might be playing on the trampoline with her two older brothers. There was even a moment that Simone ventured into their front yard – and believing that her parents wasn’t watching through their office window – she climbed the 4-foot mailbox and performed back tuck onto the grass below.

“Simone was a daring girl; she would do anything,” her mother, Nellie says. “If her brothers told her she couldn’t do something or challenged her, she would prove to them that she could.”

Twelve years later, Simone Biles -- now 18 years old -- still have a prosperous career as a professional gymnast. In August, she has once again emerged as the top U.S. gymnast after winning a third-consecutive national gymnastics title. Following that event, she had also won her third consecutive world gymnastics championship title, making her the first female gymnast to win three consecutive world titles.

However, despite all the success that has come across her way, the 4’8 ft teen gymnast is still far from the end of her journey. Next summer, Biles will fly to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she will compete at the 2016 Rio Olympics to win another all-around gymnastics title. Being able to do so would fulfill her childhood dream and would solidify her place as the most successful gymnast in the U.S. sports history.

When Simone Biles was young, she had an unexpected opportunity to show off her skills in public.

Due to a bad weather, Simone’s daycare cancelled their field trip to a farm, and they visited a local gymnastics gym instead. After watching the athletes perform gymnastics stunts, Simone fearlessly (and flawlessly) started to imitate the older athletes she had been watching.

The coaches that were watching was impressed with Simone’s ability, and just a week later, her gymnastics career officially began.

“At a very young age, Simone had endless energy from the time she woke up to when she would go to bed,” Nellie says. “She loved life, period.”

Biles have adapted quickly to the gym. At the beginning, Simone Biles had been training for 16 hours per week, and each year she progressively added hours to her training schedule. Even as her training has increased in difficulty, she has still maintained her lively and bubbly attitude, focusing on all of the positives that would arise from all of her hard work in the gym. 

“At times the lifestyle was overwhelming,” Biles said. “But I knew that’s what I needed to do to get better and achieve my goals.”

Years later, the American artistic gymnast has improved and grew physically stronger. Soon enough, she was already performing some of the most difficult skills in gymnastics. 

Biles’s skill level was pretty outstanding, already making a quite good impression on two gymnastics legends – Former Olympic all-around champion Mary Lou Retton and Former Olympian Shannon Miller. Retton said that Biles was “the most talented gymnast” she had ever witnessed, recognizing her as “unbeatable.”. Miller agreed and said, “Simone is the one everyone is trying to catch up with,”. “She takes these very intricate, demanding skills and makes them look so incredibly easy.”

“Simone is able to go seamlessly from the power event, like vault or floor,” Miller said. “And then stay on that four-inch wide beam and be completely steady.”

“The skills Simone is performing are mind-boggling,” says Miller. “Every four years, we think this is it. You can’t add another flip, you can’t add another twist, and then they do. Simone is spearheading that right now.”

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American Rhythmic Gymnast Makes History in the Sport

When Laura Zeng gets ready to compete, the “small-yet-terrible” American gymnast takes it very seriously. As she approaches the stage, her eyes stern and lips pursed and she walks with full confidence and swag. Then, she lifts up her right hand to salute the judges and the audience as she takes her position on the carpet. 

         

After that, she starts to widen her eyes and display the beauty of her smile, revealing the energy and excitement of all her performances, from a smooth and flawless performance with the hoops to a lively samba with the clubs.

Zeng is currently acknowledged as the best American rhythmic gymnast, with a lot of remarkable achievements at the young age of 16. Zeng secured the eight spot in the all-around event finals of the 2015 World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships last September, the best all-around finish for an American gymnast. Her historic world all-around finish earned her country a spot in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

The USA rhythmic gymnastics team also secured an Olympic spot and will be the first American rhythmic team to make it to the Olympics.  Zeng and her other teammates trains at North Shore Rhythmic Gymnastics Center in Deerfield.

The administrators of the USA gymnastics hope that the successes attained by Laura Zeng and the American gymnastics team in the recently held World Championships is the start of USA’s dominance in a sport long dominated by Eastern European gymnasts. During her training, Zeng said that to think that she had really earned a spot in the Olympics was “overwhelming”.

"I knew I had all these opportunities at this competition to reach those goals. I knew it was all on me," Zeng said. "So to be able to not let myself down and really go for it, it made me proud."

Artistic gymnastics is insanely famous among American audiences, mainly because of the world-renowned figures such as Olga Korbut, Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton. In comparison, rhythmic gymnastics barely possesses the same popularity and is a sport that is often misunderstood.

"When you say you do rhythmic gymnastics, people block the 'rhythmic' part," said Kris Shaldybin, 18, of Highwood, a member of the U.S. team. "They're like, 'Oh, do you like the beam?'"

For those who don’t know:

Rhythmic gymnastics is a sport that uses hoop, ball, clubs and ribbon as the apparatus in their routines. (The use of rope was discontinued for seniors). The athletes earn points by combining balances, leaps and jumps, pivot turns, dance steps and basic acrobatics while maneuvering, tossing and catching the equipment with the different parts of their body. Each performance can earn up to 20 points, and they are scored based on execution and the difficulty of their routine. Rhythmic gymnastics athletes can compete as individuals or as a group.

In a group performance, each of the five team members will hold an apparatus, synchronize their routines and toss their apparatus with each other. The different teams will perform two routines with varying combinations of apparatus. During the Olympic season, groups will perform with five ribbons in one routine, and with two hoops and six clubs in the other.

"At first glance, people just think it's twirling with a ribbon," Zeng said. "But I don't think they understand how hard it is to get that routine done. It takes so much work to master the equipment, to make it a part of you, and to be able to do all those elements with musicality. It's so many things happening at once."

Zeng was originally studying Chinese dancing, but was later introduced to rhythmic gymnastics by her friend when she was just 7 years old.

"I was drawn to the performance aspect, as I was a dancer and I loved performing for the audience," Zeng said. "And the musicality and being able to express myself while also being able to do equipment handling also really appealed to me."

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World Gymnastics Championships filled with Record Breaking Events

Glasgow was filled with record-breaking events as Max Whitlock writes a new chapter in Britain’s sports history after obtaining the world title in the pommel horse finals, making him the first-ever British male athlete to win gold at a World Gymnastics Championships, while four female gymnasts shared the top of the podium after tying on the uneven bars finals.

Fan Yilin, Dario Spiridonova, Madison Kocian and Viktoria Komova finished their uneven bars routine with surprisingly same scores (15.366), resulting in an unexpected “four gold medalists” in the women’s individual apparatus finals.

That unprecedented event brought surprise and amusement to the audience and the four champions, who shared the crowded space at the peak of the medal podium, leaving the two bottom spaces empty.

The medal awarding ceremony was also prolonged as there were three national anthems (Russia, China, and USA) being played. The organizers also had to skip the flag raising ceremony since they can’t fit three national flags on one horizontal pole.

American gymnast Kocian depicted the incident as “super crazy”, while Chinese gymnast Fan Yilin said it was “hilarious”. Russia’s Spiridonova said: “Wow! I’ve never seen anything like this. I didn’t think anything like this would even be possible. It’s great that we are in this together and we will share the victory.”

Her teammate Komova added: "It was hard to deal with the nerves after they started to announce the results. I am personally shocked. It's the first time the judges had such a hard time deciding who the champion was."

NARROW MARGIN

Meanwhile, in the men’s apparatus finals, Whitlock has managed to surpass his compatriot’s score on the pommel horse event by a very tight margin. 

Smith executed a clean routine on the pommel horse to sit on the top of the scoreboard with a score of 16.033 until Whitlock, the last pommel horse competitor, outshone Smith’s performance to finish with a score of 16.133, just a tenth-of-a-point ahead of his compatriot’s score.

The British duo gazed on the giant scoreboard while waiting for Whitlock’s score, and when the score of 16.133 flashed up on the giant screen, Smith quickly grabbed their national flag to begin a double celebration.

"I had dreamed of this moment but never felt I would get emotional," said Whitlock, who also obtained a silver medal in the floor event finals behind Japanese superstar Kenzo Shirai.

"I can't believe it. I trained in the gym thousands and thousands of routines building up to this moment, so when you go clean like I did today, you can't express what you feel. I'm over the moon. It's been an amazing journey."

SHIRAI SHINES

On the men’s floor exercise finals, Japanese Kenzo Shirai executed a routine filled with daring and high-flying acrobatics and ending it with a quadruple twisting somersault, earning him a second world title in 3 years.

A slight mistake on his third tumbling pass was not enough for Shirai to flinch as the Japanese floor exercise supremo was the only competitor to surpass the 16-point barrier after finishing with a score of 16.233.

"As I experienced defeat last year, I know the importance to keep improving. This time I was able to surprise everyone with my difficulty," he said.

Russian gymnast Maria Paseka outclassed most sought-after athlete Simone Biles and the vault defending champion Hong Un-jong with two soaring leaps to obtain the vault world title.

Paseka hit her landing on both of her vaults, an Amanar and a Cheng, to finish with an average total of 15.666. Korea’s Hong Un-jong took the silver medal while American superstar Biles earned bronze.

Paseka’s gold finish sparked a gold rush for Russia, which started the second-to-the-last day of Championships with none but ended the competition with three gold medals, thanks to Paseka, Komova and Spiridonova.

Meanwhile, Greek gymnast Elftherious Petrounias displayed a jaw dropping ring performance to secure the rings world title ahead of Chinese You Hao and 2014 rings defending champion Liu Yang.

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