Because we could all use something to smile about right now, and also because gymnast Simone Biles is our BFF in our heads, I had to drop this gem of a clip your way. The 19-year-old, who is prepping for the Olympics next month (starting August 5), was invited to throw the first pitch at the Houston Astros’ home game for the Fourth of July. Residing in Spring, Texas, Biles’s family was present as she took to the pitching mound to bust out a side aerial flip before launching the ball at starting pitcher Scott Feldman. Of course, it could have been much simpler, but what fun would that have been?
It’s no shock that the aerial cartwheel was pretty epic and that she stuck the landing. If she could perfectly execute such moves on balance beams, during floor exercises, vaults and more, a dirt-covered mound is a piece of cake. The real feat? That she managed to keep that smile plastered on her face throughout the entire thing. Check out her full flip and pitch below:
As someone on Twitter put it, she’s quite the tiny ball of greatness.
Announcements for the women’s U.S. gymnastics team will be announced this weekend (July 10). And while Biles did tell Us Weekly that she’s a little nervous, saying expectations of her for the Olympics are “a big thing to live up to,” we’re pretty confident that she’ll wow, per the usual. All of this talent packed into a young woman who, like Misty Copeland in ballet, is considered a late bloomer in gymnastics. It’s always the late bloomers who end up dominating, amirite?
“Gymnastics was not a sport that came to mind that I would have put Simone in in the first place,” Nellie Biles, Simone’s adoptive mother, told Us. “That just came by as an accident and it was a great accident. It was for a day care field trip that she went to the gym and she came back with a note, and to me the note was special, but probably was a note that everyone received. The note was a generic note saying that she attended the gym and that she enjoyed gymnastics. It was a choice between gymnastics and cheerleading, and I spoke to her about it and she chose gymnastics and that was it.”
The rest is history, and Biles is sure to make more of it come August.
