“I felt like an ant trying to make sure I didn’t get stepped on” – When Simone Biles recalled meeting Usain Bolt for the first time at Rio 2016

Simone Biles once spoke about how she was awestruck after meeting sprinting legend Usain Bolt for the first time at the 2016 Rio Olympics. It was the American gymnast’s maiden Olympics while Bolt was making his fourth and final Summer Games appearance.

Biles started her elite career in 2011, making her debut at the 2011 American Classic (junior). She didn’t qualify for the national team in her first attempt but has never failed since. The 27-year-old made her senior debut in 2013 and hasn’t lost a single all-around competition since winning the nationals that year.

Before making her Olympic debut at the 2016 Rio Games, the Texas native had won 10 gold medals at the three World Championships between 2013-15 and was already a big star. By the end of the 2016 Rio Olympics, Biles’ comparisons with greats of the sports world such as Usain Bolt had already begun.

Biles, 19 at that time, met Bolt for the first time at the Rio Olympics. Recalling her experience in her 2016 memoir, ‘Courage to Soar: A Body in Motion, A Life in Balance’, the 11-time Olympic medalist wrote:

“We also got to meet Simone Manuel, Michael Phelps, and Katie Ledecky from the US swimming team, and Novak Djokovic, the Serbian tennis player currently ranked number one in the world. We tried not to be too awestruck by all these stars, but one day a really tall, lean, muscular, dark-skinned man walked past our table with a small entourage.”

Biles added that her teammates Gabby Douglas and Aly Raisman recognized Bolt and all of them rushed to get a photo with him only to be turned back as he was having dinner. She added:

“Later, when we’d finished our own meal, we all walked by Usain’s table and apologized for disturbing him earlier, and he was super nice. ‘We’re the gymnastics team,’ we told him. ‘I can tell,’ he said, with a big smile. Everyone knew who we were because we were so much shorter than the other athletes. I felt like an ant trying to make sure I didn’t get stepped on.”