Where does Simone Biles rank?

[Mizzou_8541]

Where does Simone Biles rank among the best American athletes ever? She’s literally reset the bar for the entire sport. Mahomes level except she’s done it for over a decade and against the world. Who is better? She has multiple routines named after her. Largest margin of victory. She jumps like 12 feet over routine. The oldest to win the all around in 72 years. I don’t know how to do polls, but even if I did what choices would he in the poll? I have two daughters in gymnastics and they both want to be her (obviously not relevant to my question but it’s nice as a dad to see them strive to beat her).

[A8bil]

Originally Posted by HonestChieffan

Katie Ledecky is another superior athlete who is head and shoulders above Biles. Takes nothing away from Biles accomplishments.

As a swimmer, I really appreciate Ledecky's perseverance and records -- phenomenal. However, it's just swimming 8 hours a day 6 days a week for years at the fastest rate their body can tolerate. What SB and some many other athletes do requires so much more as an athlete.

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

My God. Biles has dominated the sport at unforseen levels for almost a decade. MLR won in an Olympiad where the Eastern Bloc boycotted. This is one of the most absurd takes I've ever seen. She isn't even close to Shannon Miller, let alone Biles.

I had a SUPER big crush on Miller in the 96 Olympics. I was 13 and ...yeah.

[GabyKeepsMeWarm]

I read through the first few pages on this thread…. So much praise!

She is great at what she does. She’s exceptional! She’s also got a diamond encrusted GOAT necklace.

So she’s the best!

And what a lovely story!!!

Nobody will give a **** after the closing ceremonies…

But maybe I’m too cynical.

[Balto]

Originally Posted by Kiimo

Stupid. Her difficulty level alone makes this post worthless.

Which honestly is a big reason I’m not a fan of how it’s judged. A lot of her events she has a much higher difficulty rating because of all the flies and twists she does in the air but then has HORRENDOUS landing which don’t matter because the difficulty is so high.

The gymnast should have to semi stick the landing or else that gymnast, Biles for example, needs to d O1 less flip in the air so they can actually come close to landing it.

Landing should be way more points

[Balto]

Originally Posted by kysirsoze

I'm sure all the idiots in this thread calling her a quitter would consider Jordan a quitter as well for retiring when his dad was killed only to return a year later. They couldn't possibly be on record on this very site calling him the GOAT.

I don’t care that she quit……I care that she quit after the cutoff to bring someone else in her place to help THE TEAM.

[HonestChieffan]

Originally Posted by Ocotillo

Babe Didrikson Zaharias is only regarded as the greatest female athlete of the 20th century.

Her golfing career was the backend of her athletics career.

She won two golds and a silver in track and field at the 1932 Olympics. She also pitched in three spring training games, throwing a scoreless inning for the Philadelphia Athletics and two scoreless innings for the Cleveland Indians.

Another example of superior athletic ability. Biles recieves accolades like GOAT because people have no real understanding of history. Give it a couple rounds of Olympics and she will be remembered more for her taking herself out than coming back in 2024 than anything else.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by HonestChieffan

Another example of superior athletic ability. Biles recieves accolades like GOAT because people have no real understanding of history. Give it a couple rounds of Olympics and she will be remembered more for her taking herself out than coming back in 2024 than anything else.

She has several moves named after her and is the most decorated gymnast in history. She will always be remembered as an elite gymnast. People will be saying her name for decades as they do her moves and shoot for her medals records, who the hell is going to forget her?

[kysirsoze]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

She has several moves named after her and is the most decorated gymnast in history. She will always be remembered as an elite gymnast. People will be saying her name for decades as they do her moves and shoot for her medals records, who the hell is going to forget her?

True students of history, apparently.

[Mosbonian]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

She has several moves named after her and is the most decorated gymnast in history. She will always be remembered as an elite gymnast. People will be saying her name for decades as they do her moves and shoot for her medals records, who the hell is going to forget her?

Which is what they said about Olga Korbut......Nadia Comaneci....Mary Lou Retton....Shannon Miller.....etc...

There is no doubt that right now Biles, medal-wise, is the best in the world. But no differently than the names above, someone in the next generation of gymnasts will eclipse her.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by Mosbonian

Which is what they said about Olga Korbut......Nadia Comaneci....Mary Lou Retton....Shannon Miller.....etc...

There is no doubt that right now Biles, medal-wise, is the best in the world. But no differently than the names above, someone in the next generation of gymnasts will eclipse her.

Well yeah, nobody talks about mark spitz or Carl Lewis or Janet evans anymore. She is a generational talent and it’ll take a long time to pass the baton. It’ll take another generational talent to consistently dominate across multiple Olympics. Like the nba, that player hasn’t emerged yet and there’s no guarantee that this player can dominate for over a decade.

[A8bil]

Originally Posted by Mosbonian

Which is what they said about Olga Korbut......Nadia Comaneci....Mary Lou Retton....Shannon Miller.....etc...

There is no doubt that right now Biles, medal-wise, is the best in the world. But no differently than the names above, someone in the next generation of gymnasts will eclipse her.

Yeah...no. All of those you named were the latest media darlings who were for that moment the consistently best gymnast at the time, but doing much of the same moves as their contemporaries. SB has done and is doing things never done before and things that are not being done by her contemporaries because they are not capable of doing them.

Will someone come in the future who can match SB's skills? Certainly, but I don't see it happening soon.

[Mosbonian]

Originally Posted by A8bil

Yeah...no. All of those you named were the latest media darlings who were for that moment the consistently best gymnast at the time, but doing much of the same moves as their contemporaries. SB has done and is doing things never done before and things that are not being done by her contemporaries because they are not capable of doing them.

Will someone come in the future who can match SB's skills? Certainly, but I don't see it happening soon.

All of the names I men were the best of their times and were considered generational talent and spoken of in the same terms that you hear Biles being spoken of....and let's remind ourselves that the athletes of those times didn't have the resources that athletes do these days to help them go the next level

I am not saying she isn't the best of all time as of this moment....but let's not assume the next Biles isn't already out there.

[Mosbonian]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

She has several moves named after her and is the most decorated gymnast in history. She will always be remembered as an elite gymnast. People will be saying her name for decades as they do her moves and shoot for her medals records, who the hell is going to forget her?

What makes her great is what she has accomplished....but just to clarify having moves names after her isn't something new to gymnasts....as each generation comes along and tries to do something that sets them apart and gets them on the medal stand a new move is created and gets named after them.

[A8bil]

Originally Posted by Mosbonian

All of the names I men were the best of their times and were considered generational talent and spoken of in the same terms that you hear Biles being spoken of....and let's remind ourselves that the athletes of those times didn't have the resources that athletes do these days to help them go the next level

I am not saying she isn't the best of all time as of this moment....but let's not assume the next Biles isn't already out there.

I'll repeat what I said earlier. My daughter was an elite gymnast, and many of the friends she competed with and against ended up being top talent at the college level (LSU, UCLA, etc.). I went too many gymnastics competitions to count, so I have some familiarity with the sport.

The gymnasts you refer to were not recognized in the same manner as SB. The moves they were doing, were all being done by their competitors....they just did them better. In fact, a lot of the moves those gymnasts did are taught and mastered by 8 year olds nowadays. They were fairly simple routines, where style and precision were the most important criteria.

The focus in gymnastics changed around 2005, when they went from the standard scale of 1-10.0 scoring, to split scores where the difficulty of routines allowed for higher scores. After that, the coaches all started focusing on more difficult routines to gain an advantage. While gymnasts like Raisman, Liukin, etc. raised the bar incrementally, SB leap frogged all of them, because she started doing routines that had difficulty levels that no other gymnast has done or is doing. What she is doing is very different, you just don't understand why it is different.

Will someone come in the future who is equally acrobatic, strong, fearless and dedicated as SB? Never say never, but there are literally thousands of gymnasts who have spent their lives trying to do what SB is doing, and they simply can't.