U.S. gymnastics star Simone Biles stayed home during the 2012 Olympics. At age 15, she was not allowed to participate.
But if Biles was allowed, could she have medaled?
"No, there was no chance," she says. "I was terrible. I still had a lot to learn. Everything happens for a reason. I didn't really ever dream of going to the Olympics until after 2012. As a kid growing up, I was never like I want to go to the Olympics, so having to pass on 2012 because I was too young didn't bother me at all."
Terrible, huh? How terrible could Biles, now 19, have been, considering she won gold in the all-around at the 2013 World Championships just 14 months after London?
For most of the 2016 Olympics cycle, Biles has been the face of the sport. She won all three World Championship all-around golds from 2013-2015, and she tallied ten total World Championship golds and 14 total medals. In fact, since the 2013 World Championships, Biles has won every major all-around competition she has entered.
Paul Ziert, publisher of International Gymnast, unleashed a mega-hot take on Biles, telling The New Yorker in May: "If she doesn't win five of the six Olympic gold medals it would be a disappointment."
To this, Biles says: "That doesn't affect me. That is just an opinion. I can only control what I do when I go compete. If I disappoint someone, it's their loss for putting that expectation on me when they don't know me. I can't control what they want."
Biles is a self-proclaimed late-bloomer, who until 2012, balanced attending public school five days a week with training for the junior circuit. She grew up admiring Shawn Johnson and Alicia Sacramore, and a move to home-schooling for high school bolstered Biles' Olympic chances.
"In 2013, I started to believe in myself, but I never thought I would become the best gymnast," she says.
Biles, despite sitting on the verge of becoming the Olympics' most famous athlete, keeps much of her life a mystery. Substance-abuse problems forced Biles' biological mother to put her four children in foster care as toddlers. At 3, Biles was welcomed into her grandfather Ron's home in Texas, making the move from Columbus. Ron, Simone's maternal grandfather, officially adopted Simone, along with his wife, Nellie, who is not Simone's biological grandmother.
And to Biles, that is the end of this part of her story.
"I think they hype that up more than they should because they want a story," Biles says of the media's portrayal of Ron and Nellie, her legal guardians. "It's all I've ever known."
Ron and Nellie brought in Simone and her sister, Adria, who was just 13 months old, while the couple was raising two of their own high-school age children. Raising Simone was easier than expected. She found her own hobby and let it occupy her time.
"They never drew me to gymnastics," Biles says. "I was kind of thrown into it. Gymnastics kind of picked me on a daycare field trip. They never were like, 'We need to put you in gymnastics and do this.' It kind of just happened."
Biles is a teenager for another seven months. While most of her peers prepare to go back to college, she has the most anticipated event of her life to deal with. But again, she is still a teenager.
"I guess I maintain it by doing normal teen stuff," she says of her ability to stay ground. "Hanging out with my friends, going to the mall, shopping, going to the movies, or having lunch or dinner with my friends -- things like that.
"I’ve been balancing it for a really long time, so I guess it’s normal to me. It’s not really how I balance it, but just my routine the way a normal person would go to work in the morning and then exercise or if they have to or go to school. That’s what I do except it’s revolving around gymnastics instead of school and work."
Biles spoke to ThePostGame on behalf of Tide PODS and the #SmallButPowerful. She starred in a recent ad campaign alongside Nadia Comaneci and Dominque Dawes.
Comaneci and Dawes won gold medals during their careers. If all goes as planned for Biles, she should have enough medals to make her neck stiff on the way home from Rio.
More Olympics:
-- Mike Conley Jr.: When Your Dad Is An Olympian
-- How Christen Press Stays Sane Despite Crazy Schedule
-- How Miles Chamley-Watson Turned Detention Into Olympic Fencing
Follow Jeffrey Eisenband on Twitter @JeffEisenband.
