Women have competed at the Olympic Games in artistic gymnastics since 1952, and the women's program was introduced at the 1950 World Championships. Before 2006, the highest possible score in gymnastics was a perfect 10, and the newer scoring system removed the perfect 10. Under the open-ended scoring system, no gymnast has received a perfect score. The maximum E score is 10, but there is no cap on the D score, so in theory a score could be infinite, and in major competitions the average marks for routines have generally been in the low to mid-teens. Biles is so good because she performs the most difficult skills with very few deductions for execution.

As of November 2026, Simone Biles's 2023 vault routine and 2024 floor routine are the most difficult ever performed. In May 2021, she became the first woman to land a Yurchenko double pike vault in competition. At the 2019 World Championships, she became the first woman to complete a triple-twisting double somersault on floor exercise. At those championships, she scored 15.133 on floor and won gold, one point more than the silver medalist. At the 2024 Olympics, she won the vault gold medal with a Biles II, a Yurchenko double pike, and a Cheng.

At the 2018 World Championships, Simone Biles became the first American woman to win a world medal on every event, won the gold medal on vault for her first world vault title and won the silver medal on uneven bars. At the 2019 World Championships, she won the all-around with a score of 58.999, a record-setting 2.1 points ahead of second place, and she led Team USA to its fifth consecutive world team title. At the 2023 World Championships, she became the only gymnast to qualify for all individual event finals. As of November 2026, she has the most World Championship medals of any gymnast: 30, all but seven of them gold.

At the 2024 Olympics, Simone Biles helped the U.S. team win the team gold medal. In the Olympic all-around final, she finished first ahead of the rival who took silver and the defending champion. She became the second woman after Věra Čáslavská to win two Olympic vault titles, and she became the fourth American woman to compete in artistic gymnastics at three Olympic Games. The 2024 Olympic floor result, a loss by 0.033 points, marked the first time in her senior international career that she did not win the floor exercise, and it ended her streak of 10 consecutive international gold medals on floor exercise.

In 2024, Simone Biles was named Sports Illustrated's Sportsperson of the Year. She was named Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year for the third time in December 2023. As of April 2025, she has won the Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year four times and has been awarded five Laureus World Sports Awards. Earlier, she won the ESPY Award for Best Female Athlete in July 2017. In 2022, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and she became the youngest person to receive it.

Words to know

• deductions: points taken off
• qualify: earn a place
• silver: second place
• defending: reigning