you nurture a GOAT? Former coach of Simone Biles explains how she did it in new book

Simone Biles salutes the crowd after winning the gold medal watched by her coach Aimee Boorman during the Artistic Gymnastics Women’s Individual All-Around Final at the Rio Olympic Arena on August 11, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images

What’s the first thing you think of when you think of Simone Biles?

It might be her on top of the Olympic podium with one of her seven gold medals. Maybe she’s flying through the air, doing one of the five skills named after her. Or maybe it’s after she nails a landing and her smile lights up the arena.

Aimee Boorman saw plenty of gold medals and eye-popping sequences during her decade-plus as Biles’ coach, helping develop Biles from an uber-athletic 7-year-old dynamo into the 19-year-old superstar whose abilities made her world-famous at the 2016 Olympics. She has witnessed even more from a distance over the past decade as Biles has not only continued to win but also become an advocate and leader.

But, as she writes in the prologue of her book, “The Balance: My Years Coaching Simone Biles,” she’s most proud that Biles’ smile remained through all the ups and downs and twists and turns of her career. 

“It’s not about the cartwheels, it’s not about medals, it’s not about the world travel and all of the awards that she’s received. It’s that in her heart, she’s happy and she loves what she’s doing,” Boorman said recently on a video call from Germany, where she is coaching. “When she smiles, that shows.”

United States’ Simone Biles bites her gold medal for the artistic gymnastics women’s individual all-around final at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016.

Dmitri Lovetsky/AP

Keeping the fun in gymnastics gets to the heart of Boorman’s philosophy as a coach, which she lays out in the book, which will be released Tuesday.

Boorman approaches gymnastics just as that: gymnastics. It isn’t the be-all, end-all, and certainly not representative of someone’s value as a person. 

As a child in Chicago, Boorman had a coach who ignored her and treated her poorly. It’s an experience she vowed never to replicate with any of her athletes.

“There should be joy in life.” Boorman said. “Like when I go to work, I certainly want to enjoy what I do. I want to be happy. I want to have a good day. I wanted Simone to feel those same things. I didn’t want anyone to ever extinguish that fire or that light in her.”

The young Biles had plenty of talent, but Boorman had to make sure the future Olympian not only developed the techniques and skills to match her outstanding athleticism but also pace her development to peak at the 2016 games.

That happened. Biles won numerous gold medals at national and world championships as she became a force in the gymnastics community. The book takes the readers through that journey as Biles advanced through different levels, traveled to events and worked to reach her potential.

Coach Aimee Boorman talks to Simone Biles ahead of the Sr. Women’s 2016 Secret U.S. Classic at the XL Center on June 4, 2016, in Hartford, Connecticut.

Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

It wasn’t just her on-the-mat performances that made Biles stand out.

Her bright and outgoing personality has become a well-known part of her persona. Boorman said other coaches might have tried to suppress that, but she never did.

“Anybody in the gymnastics world could be down a hallway and not see her and hear her giggle and know it was her because it’s part of the soundtrack of our gymnastics community now,” Boorman said. “The smile, the same thing.”

Boorman’s style wasn’t always met with understanding. In the book, co-written with journalist Steve Cooper, she details multiple times when her approach differed from the norms.

There weren’t always smiles in those situations, Boorman said, but she wanted to protect Biles and let her know other people supported her and wanted what was best for her.

“The Balance,” which is split into three parts, doesn’t begin with her meeting Biles or end with the 2016 Olympics. But the Boorman-Biles relationship is the crux of the story, and how Boorman hopes it can serve as an example for coaches. 

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“At any given moment, she could have been like, ‘This isn’t fun. I don’t want to do this anymore,'” Boorman said. “Then we never would have had Simone Biles, the GOAT. We just would have had, ‘Hey, do you remember that girl, Simone, who was really good for a little while? Whatever happened to her?’ Now, no one will ever forget what happened to Simone Biles.”

Peter Warren is a general assignment reporter for the Houston Chronicle’s breaking news team.

Before joining the Chronicle, Peter lived in Dallas, where he covered the sports as a freelancer for the Dallas Morning News and other outlets. He has been published in Texas Highways Magazine, DMagazine.com, the Star Tribune and Bowlers Journal International. Peter graduated from Northwestern University in 2021.