The Balance

From legendary gymnast Simone Biles’s longtime coach, an insider’s look at the making of a champion

With a Foreword by Simone Biles

Simone Biles is one of the greatest athletes of all time. She’s won six all-around world championships and seven Olympic medals (four gold). Five gymnastics moves are named after her, and she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom (the youngest recipient ever). At 26, an age when most elite gymnasts have retired, Biles is not just still competing—she’s dominating. She’s expected to be in Paris this summer and could easily bring home more Olympic gold. She’s having so much fun these days that LA 2028 is not out of the question.

But when coach Aimee Boorman met her at a gym in Texas, Simone was just a seven-year-old kid. An exceptionally athletically gifted one, to be sure, but not yet great. That would take time, care, love, and balance. The Balance is coach Boorman’s inside account of the growth of a transcendent athlete and the tumultuous events—from the dictatorial coaching of Bela and Martha Karolyi to the sexual abuse by Larry Nassar—that upended the lives of many girls, including Biles. Boorman helped shape Biles, both pushing her and holding her back, protecting both her mental and physical health. “She’s like a second mum to me,” writes Biles, and Boorman was the National Team coach in 2016, where the US—and Biles—brought home all-around gold.

The Balance combines unprecedented insider perspective on a legend, newsworthy details on gymnastics history, and compelling lessons on coaching, leadership, and development.