How many gold medals has Simone Biles won?

The United States has had many gymnastics heroes throughout its Olympic history. There's Mary Lou Retton, who won individual all-around gold at the 1984 Los Angeles Games. There's Shannon Miller, Domonique Dawes, and Kerri Strug, who helped the U.S. win its first ever team all-around gold in 1996 in Atlanta. Carly Patterson won individual all-around gold in Athens in 2004, then Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson took over the Beijing Games four years later, taking home gold and silver in the individual all-around and nine medals combined.

America has continued to grow as a gymnastics power in the past 15 years. Gabby Douglas and Aly Raisman took the torch from Liukin and Johnson, by combining for nine medals themselves, including team all-around gold in London in 2012, Douglas' all-around gold in those same Olympics, and Raisman's all-around silver in Rio in 2016.

The United States has had many gymnastics heroes throughout its Olympic history, but there's never been one like Simone Biles. Along with Douglas and Raisman, Biles was part of the team dubbed "The Final Five" that won team all-around gold for the second straight Olympics in 2016. Rather than take a backseat to her extremely accomplished teammates, though, Biles rose above them all to announce herself as the most dominant force that women's gymnastics had ever seen. In addition to the team gold that she earned in Rio, Biles also stood atop the podium in the individual all-around, vault, and floor exercise. She even threw in a bronze on the balance beam for good measure.

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which were postponed a year due to the COVID pandemic, were supposed to be a showcase for Biles to definitively stamp herself as the greatest women's gymnast of all-time. Instead, a case of "the twisties," which is defined as the gymnastics version of the yips in which a gymnast loses confidence while performing twisting elements in the air, kept Biles from playing out a full schedule in which she was favored to win gold in four of the six events she was entered in.

Biles' bout of the twisties prevented her from adding any more golds to her trophy case in Tokyo, but it was instrumental in transforming the way in which athletes can speak openly about their mental health. The sports world hadn't seen someone take a break from being the unquestioned best in the their sport since Michael Jordan temporarily retired from basketball to pursue a baseball career back in 1993, and never before had someone stepped away at the peak of their powers for mental health reasons. Biles not only did it, she overcame it and has come back better than ever.

Biles has put the twisties behind her to regain her mantle as the undisputed queen of gymnastics once again. Her 23 career golds in the World Championships are the most ever, as are the 30 overall World Championship medals she possesses. She attempts moves that other gymnasts wouldn't dream of trying, and in fact has five moves of her own creation that are named after her: two on the vault, two on floor, and one on the balance beam.

How many Olympic gold medals has Simone Biles won?

Biles came to Paris with the four Olympic golds that she earned in Rio, but she's already added to her medal collection by leading Team USA to gold in Tuesday's women's team all-around finals. That puts her up to five Olympic golds (tied for third all-time among female gymnasts) and eight total Olympic medals, but she's just getting started in Paris. Biles is expected to compete and thrive in four more events in these Games, including the women's individual all-around and the finals for the vault, floor, and beam.

Biles is already the greatest American gymnast in history, and a dominant showing in the individual events in Paris could cement her as the greatest gymnast in history, period. Most people consider her to be the owner of that title already. There have been many gymnastics heroes in Olympic history, but there has never been anyone like Simone Biles.

Follow Biles and the rest of Team USA's quest for gold on NBC, Peacock, NBCOlympics.com, and the NBA Olympics app.