Gymnastics superstar Simone Biles is Sports Illustrated's newest Sportsperson of the Year, the magazine announced Thursday. The win follows Biles's historic career comeback and gold medal-winning performance at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

"I don't think the reality has set in of what I've exactly done in the sport," Biles told the magazine. "I can see it, and I hear it from people, and I see a glimpse of it, but the full magnitude I don't think I've realized just yet."

Biles is the first Olympian to earn the honor since LeBron James in 2012.

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Biles subsequently returned to the top of the world stage in 2024, bouncing back after a bout of "the twisties" derailed her 2021 Tokyo Olympics run.

In Paris, Biles became the first gymnast to win two All-Around titles in non-consecutive Olympic Games (2016, 2024). She also took gold in the team and vault events as well as silver in the floor event.

With 11 Olympic and 30 World Championship medals, Biles is the most decorated gymnast in history.

Silver medal winner Rebeca Andrade of Brazil, Gold medalist and Sports Illustrated 2024 Sportsperson of the Year Simone Biles of USA and Bronze medal winner Sunisa Lee of USA (L-R) celebrate with the medals after the women's Artistic Gymnastics All-Around Final on day six of the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
After the Paris Olympics, Simone Biles became the most decorated gymnast of all time. (Stefan Matzke - sampics/Getty Images)

Sportsperson of the Year builds an Olympic legacy

While Biles hasn't fully ruled out another trip to the mat, the 27-year-old isn't interested in discussing a potential LA 2028 campaign just yet.

"Because I've accomplished so much, there's almost nothing left to do. Rather than to just be snobby and to try again, and for what?" she said. "I'm at a point in my career where I'm humble enough to know when to be done."

Fever rookie Caitlin Clark rocketed to the upper tiers of Sportico's annual highest-paid women's sports athletes report on Wednesday, landing in 10th place with an estimated $11 million in yearly earnings.

With tournaments like the US Open guaranteeing equal purses across men's and women's events, tennis players dominated the findings, accounting for nine of the 15 entries. This includes first-place Coco Gauff, who, with $9.4 million in prizes plus $21 million in endorsements, tops the list for the second year in a row.

Skier Eileen Gu came in second, complementing her individual earnings with the list's highest-estimated endorsement profits at $22 million. Gymnast Simone Biles came in at No. 9 with an estimated $11.1 million in total income.

Golfers Nelly Korda and Lydia Ko also made the cut, mirroring the LPGA Tour's expanded purses.

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Report highlights endorsements in women's sports

The report underlines the continued importance of endorsements in the women's game — particularly within team sports, where many athletes rely on supplemental income to boost relatively small pro salaries.

However, 2024's estimated $221 million in total earnings is up 27% over last year, with 11 athletes making at least $10 million compared to six in 2023.

Highest-paid female athlete US tennis star Coco Gauff poses with her 2024 WTA Finals trophy
Tennis star Coco Gauff is 2024's highest-paid women's sports athlete. (Robert Prange/Getty Images)

Sportico's 15 highest-paid women's sports athletes

1. Coco Gauff: $30.4 million
Prize money: $9.4 million | Endorsements: $21 million

2. Eileen Gu: $22.1 million
Prize money: $62,000 | Endorsements: $22 million

3. Iga Świątek: $21.4 million
Prize money: $8.4 million | Endorsements: $13 million

4. Zheng Qinwen: $20.6 million
Prize money: $5.6 million | Endorsements: $15 million

5. Aryna Sabalenka: $17.7 million
Prize money: $9.7 million | Endorsements: $8 million

6. Naomi Osaka: $15.9 million
Prize money: $870,000 | Endorsements: $15 million

7. Emma Raducanu: $14.7 million
Prize money: $671,000 | Endorsements: $14 million

8. Nelly Korda: $14.4 million
Prize money: $4.4 million | Endorsements: $10 million

9. Simone Biles: $11.1 million
Prize money: $135,000 | Endorsements: $11 million

10. Caitlin Clark: $11.1 million
Salary/bonus: $100,000 | Endorsements: $11 million

11. Jasmine Paolini: $10 million
Prize money: $6.5 million | Endorsements: $3.5 million

12. Jeeno Thitikul: $9.1 million
Prize money: $7.1 million | Endorsements: $2 million

13. Jessica Pegula: $8.2 million
Prize money: $4.2 million | Endorsements: $4 million

14. Elena Rybakina: $7.9 million
Prize money: $3.9 million | Endorsements: $4 million

15. Lydia Ko: $6.7 million
Prize money: $3.2 million | Endorsements: $3.5 million

The 91st, your one-stop-shop for all things USWNT at the 2024 Paris Olympics is back and breaking down the Olympic semifinals.

It wasn't always pretty, but the result remains the same. The USWNT is through to the Olympic gold medal match after back-to-back 1-0 extra time wins over Japan and Germany. Hosts Jordan Angeli, Jess McDonald, and Duda Pavao react to those games, provide player ratings, and talk through Brazil's stunning win over World Cup champions Spain.

Later, Allie Long joins in for a game of "This or That," addressing such pressing issues as whether or not Simone Biles or Katie Ledecky is the bigger GOAT.

To close things out, the crew previews the USWNT's gold medal final and discusses whether Emma Hayes should make some shock lineup changes in order to put the best XI on the pitch.

Subscribe to Just Women's Sports on YouTube to never miss an episode.

USA Gymnastics superstar Simone Biles furthered her Olympics legacy on Thursday, taking gold in the individual all-around final for the second time in her storied career.

Brazil's Rebeca Andrade won her second-straight Olympic silver, while Biles's USA gymnastics teammate and Tokyo all-around gold medalist Suni Lee took bronze.

Lee is the first Olympic all-around gold medalist to medal in the same event twice in a row since since Romanian gymnastics icon Nadia Comaneci in 1980.

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Biles makes triumphant comeback in Paris

Three years after the twisties threatened to end her career, Biles managed to put her Olympic stamp on what is likely the greatest women's gymnastics career of all time and a true comeback story for the ages.

Biles is the only US gymnast to win two Olympic individual all-around golds, as well as the first women's gymnast to take gold in two non-consecutive Olympic Games (2016, 2024).

She is now the most decorated US gymnast of all time with six gold medals, one silver, and two bronze — not to mention the opportunity to add to her haul in apparatus finals later this week.

Gymnastics Silver medalist Rebeca Andrade of Brazil standing with Gold medalist Simone Biles and Bronze medal winner Suni Lee of USA Gymnastics
Brazilian silver medalist Andrade put up big numbers against USA Gymnastics at the individual all-around final. (Stefan Matzke - sampics/Getty Images)

USA Gymnastics finds a formidable competitor in Andrade

Biles has not lost an all-around competition she's competed in since 2013, but her friendly rivalry with Andrade dialed up the heat on Thursday.

Biles landed her signature Yurchenko Double Pike vault in her first rotation — the only woman able to do so — but her lead waned after a slipup on uneven bars. But with Andrade leading after two rotations, Biles hit clean routines on balance beam and floor, pulling back in front with a close 1.199 winning margin.

"I don't want to compete with Rebeca no more. I'm tired," Biles said with a laugh in her post-event press conference. "She's way too close. I've never had an athlete that close, so it definitely put me on my toes and it brought out the best athlete in myself."

Simone Biles and her US women's gymnastics team — dubbed the "Golden Girls" —  took Olympic gold in Tuesday's team all-around final, leading after every rotation to finish a dominant 5.80 points ahead of second place.

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With high difficultly levels and only one fall, the US's "redemption tour" passed its first major Olympic test of 2024, earning Team USA their third team gold over the last four Games.

Italy took silver, marking their first women's team medal in almost a century, while bronze medalists Brazil earned their first-ever medal in women's gymnastics.

Simone Biles stuck her performances on all four apparatuses at Tuesday's team overall final. (Aytac Unal/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Veterans fuel USA gymnastics' Olympic comeback

Though their Olympic pedigrees can't be denied, Biles, Suni Lee, and Jordan Chiles's collective comeback is now the stuff of legend.

Biles stuck her performances on all four apparatuses, putting to rest any doubts after a case of the twisties caused her to withdraw from the team and individual all-around in Tokyo. Meanwhile, reigning Olympic all-around champion Lee had to overcome rare kidney disease to make her Olympic return, putting in confident routines on three apparatuses in yesterday's final.

In her long-awaited triumph, Chiles earned her first Olympic gold after taking silver in the team event in Tokyo.

Team USA gymnast Jordan Chiles competes at the Olympics
Jordan Chiles put up a stellar floor routine in the Olympic team all-around final. (Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images)

Consistency key to US gold medal

Team USA showed their depth despite losing key contributors to injury at last month's Trials, prioritizing stuck routines in an overall steady showing. Biles performed a less taxing Cheng vault as compared to her famed Yurchenko double pike on the team's first rotation, though the historic vault could make a return in the individual all-around competition.

Jordan Chiles suffered the team's only fall — during her mount on balance beam — but shined on floor in the team's last rotation.

Next, all eyes turn to Thursday's individual all-around final, where Biles, Lee, and Brazil's Rebeca Andrade are the gymnasts to watch in the quest for gold.

Simone Biles is headed to her third Olympics, headlining a Team USA that includes a number of familiar faces.

Joining her are Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, and Jade Carey — both Lee and Chiles were on the Olympic team three years ago, while Carey competed as an individual qualifier in Tokyo and won gold on floor. Teenager Hezly Rivera is the team’s only newcomer. 

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"This is definitely our redemption tour," Biles said at the US Olympic Gymnastics Trials on Sunday. "I feel like we all have more to give.

"I knew I wasn’t done after Tokyo," Biles added. "Getting back to the gym, trusting the process, I knew I’d be back."

Biles spent much of the Tokyo Olympics on the sidelines after getting the Twisties. Lee went on to win Olympic gold in the all-around, but has struggled in the last year with kidney disease. She was emotional Sunday, telling reporters she "didn’t think I’d be here."

"I’m so, so glad I kept going," she said. "There were so many times I thought about quitting and walking away from this sport."

Joscelyn Roberson and Leanne Wong were named alternates, while leading contenders Shilese Jones, Skye Blakely, and Kayla DiCello all exited with injuries.

At 27 years old, Biles is Team USA’s oldest Olympic gymnast since 1952. And as a whole, this year’s squad is the oldest to ever represent the US at the Olympics, with Carey (24), Chiles (23), and Lee (21) all over the age of 20.

With 2016 all-around gold medalist Biles and defending champion Lee, the roster will be the first from any country in Olympic history to have two Olympic all-around champions on the mat as the quartet hopes to improve on their 2021 silver-medal team finish.

"Of course, gold is the goal," Chiles said. "But this redemption tour is not about that. It’s about us. We all went through so much in Tokyo, and to be back, I’m so proud of all of us."

Biles, however, is taking things one step at a time.

"I feel like success is just what I make it," she said. "I feel like right now I’ve been successful of competing at Olympic trials and making the Paris Olympic team. So then we’ll see from there on out."

The Paris-bound US gymnastics team will soon be selected, with the 2024 US Olympic Gymnastics Trials beginning tonight. 

The women’s competition will take place Friday and Sunday, with 16 athletes competing for five available roster spots. Four alternates will also be named, with two of them traveling with the team to Paris. 

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While performance at Trials weighs heavily, a top-five table finish does not guarantee an Olympic berth. Only the gymnast that wins the all-around will be guaranteed a ticket, while the remaining four team members will be selected by a three-person committee.

Among selection criteria include difficulty scores, as well as results and consistency across all competitions extending back to last fall’s World Championships.

Four-time Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles leads the contingent, having earned a record-extending ninth US all-around title earlier this month. Three of her Olympic teammates are also looking for another shot: Jordan Chiles, Tokyo gold medalist on floor Jade Carey, and reigning Olympic all-around champion Suni Lee, who's now in remission after chronic kidney disease nearly ended her gymnastics career.

Skye Blakely, who many predicted would make the Olympic cut this weekend, has been ruled out of the competition after suffering an Achilles injury during a Wednesday training session. The second-place finisher in the all-around at the US Championships, Blakely is not allowed to submit a petition for a spot on the Olympic team. Selection procedures only allow for a petition under an illness or "extenuating circumstance," with petitions because of injury not accepted. 

Others going after a spot include Shilese Jones, a six-time World medalist, as well as four-time World medalist Leanne Wong and 2023 Pan Am Games all-around champion Kayla DiCello.

The US Olympic Gymnastics Trials women’s competition starts at 8 PM ET on Friday, airing live on NBC and streaming on Peacock.

Simone Biles took home a ninth All-Around title at the US Championships this weekend, extending her own record and setting the scene for a possibly dominant Olympics run.

Biles also won all four individual apparatus events she competed in: Floor, Beam, Vault, and Uneven Bars. Following the meet, Biles said she "couldn’t be more proud."

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"I couldn’t be more proud of how I’m doing this time in the year and just gaining that confidence over and over, getting myself back in front of a crowd and just doing what I do in practice," Biles told the NBC broadcast on Sunday.

A 37-time world and Olympic medalist, Biles automatically qualified for the Olympic trials with her win. A third-straight Summer Games is now firmly within sight for Biles, who suffered from a mental block at the Tokyo Olympics that pulled her from the All-Around competition. 

Biles took two years off from gymnastics after the Tokyo Games, emphasizing her ability to have fun as an essential component of her success.

"It took a lot mentally and physically to just trust my gymnastics again and most importantly trust myself," Biles said at a news conference after Sunday's competition. "I think that was the hardest part after Tokyo is I didn't trust myself to do gymnastics.

"Everyone says I look like I’m having fun, so that’s good because I feel like most of the time if I’m not stressing or having anxiety, I do feel like I’m having fun."

The reigning World Champion, the 27-year-old is once again looking like a front-runner to win the All-Around gold medal. 

"Now, having gone to two Olympics, each one gets a little bit more stressful because I know exactly what to expect," she said. "I know exactly what I expect from myself."

Even amidst her dominance, Biles took the time to encourage her fellow competitors. Following a fall by Suni Lee, Biles offered up words of support to her former Olympic teammate, saying she knew exactly what Lee was going through.

"I dealt with that in Tokyo," Biles said Sunday. "I just knew that she needed some encouragement and somebody to trust her gymnastics for her and to believe in her, so that’s exactly what I did."

"I don’t think I could have done it without her," Lee said about Biles after the meet. "She’s been one of my biggest inspirations for a long time. I know that we’re kind of teammates and competitors, but she’s somebody that I look up to."

37-time world and Olympic medalist Simone Biles took first place at the Core Hydration Classic over the weekend, looking every bit the top contender she is. 

Earning an all-around score of 59.500, Biles also earned the highest scores in both the vault and floor exercises. She successfully incorporated the triple-twisting double salto into her floor routine for the first time since the qualifying round at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and picked up the highest score of the night — 15.600 — on vault with a Turchenko double pike.

"I was just happy to be back out there," Biles told NBCNews. "As long as we’re there cheering each other on and hoping for the best and having confidence in each other’s gymnastics, then it’s going to work."

Cementing her place as the nation’s second-best all-around gymnast was Shilese Jones, who finished the competition second in the all-around and won the uneven bars with a final score of 15.250.

Reigning all-around Olympic champion Suni Lee won the balance beam event. While she didn’t compete on uneven bars, Lee is aiming to compete in all four events at the 2024 Xfinity US Gymnastics Championships, which kicks off May 30th in Fort Worth.

"I think I’m starting to build a lot more confidence on beam," Lee told reporters after the meet. "I think it’s super important that we start feeling the nerves now because it’s only gonna get harder."

In a surprising turn, three-time Olympic gold medalist and 2012 all-around champion Gabby Douglas wound up withdrawing from the Core Hydration Classic after a rough start on the uneven bars. 

Douglas's first return to competition since the 2016 Olympics in Rio came three weeks ago at the American Classic in Katy, Texas. While she finished 10th in the all-around, she scored high enough in the vault and balance beam events to qualify for the US Championships.

"I have to give myself a little bit of grace," Douglas said after her American Classic appearance. "It ended rough for me in 2016, so I didn’t want to end on that note. I want to make sure I end on love and joy instead of hating something that I love."

While Biles's recent performance made her looked like a shoo-in for this summer's Olympics Games, four additional team members and two alternates are yet to be determined. 

Of course, there are some familiar faces still in the mix: Jade Carey, who was on Team USA in 2020, placed fourth overall at the Core Classic while medaling in individual events. Fellow 2020 Olympian Jordan Chiles placed third in the all-around. 

The US Olympic gymnastics roster will be determined at the Olympic Trials in late June, with athletes qualifying to compete at the Trials at the US Championships.

Decorated gymnast Simone Biles took to the popular Call Her Daddy podcast this week to open up about her experience at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, revealing she thought she was going to be "banned from America" for her performance.

After Biles botched her vault routine due to a bout of the "twisties," she withdrew from the team final as well as the all-around final in order to focus on her mental health. She later reentered the competition to win bronze in the individual balance beam final.

In her interview with podcast host Alex Cooper, Biles admitted to feeling like she let the entire country down by failing her vault attempt.

"As soon as I landed I was like 'Oh, America hates me. The world is going to hate me. I can only see what they’re saying on Twitter right now,'" she recalled thinking. "I was like, ‘Holy s---, what are they gonna say about me?'"

"I thought I was going to be banned from America," she continued. "That’s what they tell you: Don’t come back if not gold. Gold or bust. Don’t come back."

Widely regarded as the greatest gymnast of all time, Biles has hinted at a desire to join her third Olympic team in Paris, though her participation won't be confirmed until after the gymnastics trials in late June. She holds over 30 medals from the Olympic Games and World Artistic Gymnastics Championships combined, and if qualified, would be a sure favorite heading into this summer’s games.