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Olympian Simone Biles is opening up about a recent experience in which she says she was misidentified as two Black athletes multiple times in one day.
“It’s not even 6 a.m. and I’ve already gotten called Dominique Dawes 2x,” Biles, 29, wrote via her Instagram Story on Sunday, July 12, referring to the retired Olympic gymnast, “and Sha’Carri [Richardson] once.” (Richardson, 26, is an Olympic track and field sprinter.)
Biles added three laughing emojis to her message, which was shared alongside a photo of the sky from a balcony.
Biles previously revealed in a 2020 interview that she “didn’t really notice racism” in her gymnastics career until seven years prior.
“I was on a world scene, and what made the news was, another gymnast saying that if we painted our skin black, maybe we would all win because I had beaten her out of beam medal, and she got upset,” Biles told Today in 2020. “And that was really the news, rather than me winning worlds.”
Biles was referring to making history as the first Black woman to win all-around at the 2013 World Championships in Belgium, where she faced a comment from fellow gymnast Carlotta Ferlito. At the time, Biles shared that she felt racism “happens every day.”
“I feel like every Black athlete or colored athlete can say that they’ve experienced it through their career,” she said. “But you just have to keep going for those little ones looking up to us. It doesn’t matter what you look like. You can strive for greatness, and you can be great.”
In recent weeks, Biles has made headlines for experiencing a health scare. She has not disclosed further details about what occurred.
“I’m not one to normally share things like this because I value privacy in today’s age. But almost dying wasn’t on my bingo card this week,” Biles wrote via her Instagram Story in June, sharing a photo of her arm containing alleged hospital wristbands.
Biles explained that her husband, Jonathan Owens, was in Indiana for workouts with his NFL team at the time.
“This was one of, if not the scariest experience of my life, especially since Jonathan was in Indy for practices,” Biles wrote. “I’ve been in bed resting this week. I’ll explain sooner or later, but [shoutout] to my close circle who reached out, checked in, visited & or sent flowers.”
After opening up about the incident, Biles shared that she and Owens, 30, were headed for a “baecation.”
When a follower commented on a post days later that they “never got the update on [her] near death experience,” Biles replied, “Not ready to talk about it just yet.”
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