Simone Biles doesn’t tolerate inappropriate assumptions about a woman’s body. In response to countless comments on her December 12 Instagram post, the 26-year-old gymnastics champion denied pregnancy speculation by writing, “I hate that I even have to address this, but please stop commenting on this photo or my Instagram in general about me being ‘pregnant.’ I’m not pregnant,” according to TMZ.
While her comment appears to have been deleted, multiple Instagram users pointed to Simone’s stomach and assumed that she was expecting her first child with husband Jonathan Owens. The couple got married earlier this year.
“Baby on board,” one person wrote. “Is that a little baby bump there?” another asked in the comments section. “Beautiful!! I see a lil bump,” a separate person added. ‘Picture is sending baby vibes,” a fourth user chimed in.
Other fans came to Simone’s defense, as one commented, “She is not pregnant! So rude to assume without knowing. This woman has, like, a damn 12 pack, that’s what you’re seeing.”
The two-time Olympian and world’s most decorated gymnast has opened up about the pressures of body image in the past. After competing in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, Simone revealed that she was teased by classmates over her physique.
“I think, in the gymnastics world, it is your body figure because you get a little bit shy about your body because you are very muscular,” the Texas resident told CNN in 2017. “But we wouldn’t be able to do the things or achieve the things we did without our bodies so we’re very grateful for them. Going to public school, nobody really had a body build that I did, and I was a girl, so the guys would sometimes make fun of me.”
In a subsequent 2020 interview with Vogue, the athlete recalled being bullied over the shape of her legs.
“They focused on how big my legs were. But God made me this way, and I feel like if I didn’t have these legs or these calves, I wouldn’t be able to tumble as high as I can and have all of these moves named after me,” she concluded.
Over the past few months, Simone returned to competitive gymnastics by appearing at the 2023 World Championships. She wowed viewers with her performances on vault, beam, the uneven bars and her floor routine after helping the U.S. team win its seventh consecutive gold medal.