Paris 2024 Olympics: I traded pins with Simone Biles
I’ve known Simone Biles since before she was the Simone Biles, the greatest female gymnast of all time, winner of seven Olympic medals, including four golds, and some 23 world titles.
I first met her back at the 2012 U.S. Classic, a meet she won as junior with little fanfare as media and fans focused on the likes of Jordyn Wieber, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas, Kyla Ross and McKayla Maroney, who would go on to star at the London 2012 Olympics.
I’ve covered her ever since.
So, when the 27-year-old posted on Instagram that she had brought her own pins to Paris for the 2024 Olympic Games, I knew I had one to have one.
Pin trading has long been all the rage at the Olympic Games with fans, media, and, of course, athletes getting in all the fun.
But a custom pin like Biles is sporting at these Games is something of a first. It’s also quickly become one of the most sought-after treasures here – at least until there are gold medals being handed out starting Saturday (27 July).
“This one is special,” wrote three-time Olympian Pauline Schäfer-Betz of Germany, the 2017 world balance beam champion, in an Instagram story post displaying the pin, a small golden heart emblazoned with her signature. “Thank you, Simone.”
I saw Schäfer-Betz' post, and few hours later, I crossed paths with Simone following her official practice Thursday (25 July) at Bercy Arena to see if I could swap my Olympics.com pin for hers.
As she walked through the mixed zone – the area where reporters meet up with the athletes – after wrapping up a dazzling workout where she showed form that’s expected to net multiple medals at her third Games, I waved and she came to where I stood.
Simone and I shared a brief moment, swapped our pins and posed for a photo. My mission complete.
“You looked great today,” I told her as she continued down the line.
Had I seen her perfectly stuck Yurchenko double pike vault an hour or so earlier, she asked me.
Of course, I had. “I screamed, I think,” I told her.
“I stuck one in the back [gym], too,” Simone told me.
And with that and a trademark giggle, off she went, beaming.
