Simone Biles Named 2019 AP Female Athlete of the Year for the Second Time

Simone Biles has been named the 2019 Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year.

This is Biles’ second time being honored as the AP Female Athlete of the Year. In 2016, she was honored after winning five medals, four of which were gold at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Biles beat the United States women’s soccer star Megan Rapinoe, who finished second in the voting done by Associated Press editors and beat writers.

Biles won gold medals at the 2019 Gymnastics World Championships in the individual all-around, balance beam and floor exercise.

Biles now has 25 world championships medals to go with her five from Rio.

“I feel like this is the beginning of my life, and I don’t want gymnastics to be my whole entire life,” Biles told the Associated Press. “I’m definitely going to soak in the moment and enjoy so 10 years from now I can look back and say ‘I had the time of my life out there’ rather than ‘I was good but I was miserable.”

Biles has also become the first gymnast to be named the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year two different years and the first to be honored in a non-Olympic year.