No doubt, Team USA Olympic gymnast Simone Biles has a big fan in rapper and performer Snoop Dogg, who is the Americans’ sorta unofficial team ambassador (and NBC Sports official commentator) during the Paris Olympics. On Sunday, after Biles fought through pain in her calf to complete her floor exercises, Dogg playfully unzipped his stars-and-stripes jacket to reveal a custom-made T-shirt underneath, splashed with a smiling photo of Biles on the front.
Ah, but the love between Snoop and the Biles clan has not always been so prominent. In fact, not long before, Nellie Biles—Simone’s mother—called out the rapper for a diss that took place more than a decade earlier.
Speaking with host Hoda Kotb and the Biles family in Paris, Dogg was informed that he has known Simone Biles for some time.
“Snoop, I don’t know if you know this, but Simone and you have known each other for a long time. Right, Nellie?” Kotb stated.
Simone Biles’ mom gives an update on her daughter and tells the story of when she met Snoop Dogg years ago.
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“How? How Nellie?” Snoop asked.
“I remember, I will never forget, I met you in Times Square. 2010. And you said—because we asked for a picture—and you said, ‘Two minutes.’ One, two and you were gone,” Nellie said, laughing as Snoop laughed, too.
Nellie & Ronald Biles Adopted Their Grandkids
For her part, Simone Biles has given ample credit to the influence of her parents, Nellie and Ronald Biles, for her success in sports. The couple also happens to be her grandparents. It was a difficult upbringing for Simone, who was separated from her biological parents and placed in foster care when she was young, but was adopted by her grandparents when she was six years old.
Biles spoke about that aspect of her journey in a Facebook Watch series called, “Simone vs. Herself.”
“Being separated from my biological mom, being placed in foster care before I officially got adopted by my grandparents, it just set me up for a better route at life,” she said, via People.com.
“I feel like I wouldn’t be where I am unless that turning point happened. I would still be Simone Biles, probably not Simone Biles that everybody else knows, the world knows. But I also believe everything happens for a reason and I’m forever grateful for that because I definitely got a second shot at life.”
Simone Biles Will Compete in All 4 Gymnastics Finals
Now, Nellie Biles says her daughter is happy to have such a strong family representation watching her return to the sport, after her career was derailed when she shockingly bowed out of the Tokyo Olympics to deal with her mental health.
“She is happy that we are here, and that 17 of us are here to cheer her on,” Nellie said.
There is plenty to be cheered. While Biles might be dealing with the calf problem, she still qualified for all four individual final events on Friday, and will be an anchor for the Americans, who are hoping to return to gold-medal status after winning silver in 2020. The Americans have won either gold or silver in every Olympics since 2000, when they won bronze.
Biles herself has four gold medals to her credit, plus a silver and two bronze.
USA Gymnastics announced on Monday that the rotation for Tuesday will be Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey and Biles on the vault; Chiles, Biles and Suni Lee on the uneven bars; Chiles, Lee and Biles on the balance beam; and Lee, Chiles and Biles in the floor exercises.
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Simone Biles’ Mom Trolls Snoop Dogg Over Old Diss: ‘You Were Gone’