Simone Biles has 14 world championship medals, more than any other U.S. female gymnast.[/caption]

At age 19, Spring resident Simone Biles is already the most-decorated American female gymnast in the history of World Artistic Gymnastic Championships. Her road to the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro began on a class field trip in Spring when she was 6 years old.

Biles said she was captivated by the sight of children tumbling across the floor at Bannon’s Gymnastix on Strack Road when a planned trip to an oil ranch was rained out, and her class was diverted to the gym for indoor activities.

Thirteen years later, Biles has 14 world gymnastics medals—10 gold, two silver and two bronze. She also is the first African-American all-around world champion. Biles is training this summer for the 2016 Summer Olympics in August with her coach, Aimee Boorman, who has been with her since those early days at Bannon’s.

“She is like a second mom to me because she has been with me for so long,” Biles said.

Biles’ family owns World Champions Centre on Birnham Woods Drive in Spring, and it is where she trains now. The facility opened in November and already has about 700 students and 15 instructors, she said.

The presence and support of her parents, Nellie and Ronald Biles, have been an important part of her development as a gymnast, she said.

“They’re just always supporting me and making a lot of sacrifices,” Biles said. “They always travel with me.”

She has two brothers, Ronald II and Adam, and a sister, Adria, who is also involved in gymnastics.

“I just let her do her own thing because she likes to be her own person,” Biles said of her younger sister.

Biles will spend the next few months getting ready for the Olympic trials in July, with a qualifying competition scheduled in Hartford, Connecticut, in June. Along the way, she will also make time to celebrate events like Mother’s Day with a family crawfish boil.

Biles announced through her Twitter page in 2014 that she will attend the University of California, Los Angeles, after pursuing her Olympic dream. She completed high school in 2015 through home schooling.

Biles has traveled to Belgium, Italy, Canada, China, Scotland, The Netherlands, Germany and the United States for competitions.

A typical training day entails getting to the gym around 9 a.m., taking a lunch and rest break at noon, and returning to the gym for two or three hours in the afternoon for routines and conditioning. Her weekly routine includes about 32 hours of training.

Floor exercises are her favorite routine because it allows a gymnast to show off her own personality and style, Biles said. She has won three gold medals in floor exercises and two in the balance beam.

The uneven bars are the area in which she said she needs to make some improvements before the Olympics this year, she said.

During competition, Biles said focus is the key.

“You just put your blinders on, and you go on autopilot,” she said. “You don’t want to overthink it.”

She said she has several good-luck charms to bring with her when she competes—a little statue of St. Sebastian, the patron saint of athletes, and some turtle figurines, because one of her mother’s pet names for her is her: “little turtle.”

Her advice to other young people pursuing a dream is make sure to keep things fun.

“I would say to make sure you are always having fun, because the more fun you have, the more memories you build along the way,” Biles said.