Adria traveled across hemispheres from Houston, Texas, to Rio with their mom and dad, Nellie and Ronald to cheer on Simone as she added medal after medal to her stack of gold medals.
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After cheering Biles and the rest of the USA women’s gymnastics team on from a distance, the 28-year-old actor who is known for his roles in Hairspray and Neighbors, hopped on a plane to surprise them after they finished competing. And that’s how you win a gold medal. She is one of the youngest athletes on the U.S. Olympic swim team and was also the first African-American woman to win an individual swimming medal in an Olympic Games.
In a world where the stereotype “black people can’t swim” prevails, this was a huge accomplishment for Manuel, who stated in a post-competition interview, “The gold medal wasn’t just for me”.
But that peck on the cheek from Efron may just top her list of memories from Rio 2016. The star of Neighbors and the High School Musical franchises surprised the gymnastic team after the competition.
Read how Simone caught Zac’s attention! At 19, Biles has already been called the best female gymnast who ever lived by former champions, including 1984 gold medalist Mary Lou Retton.
Training since age 5, Simone began competing at the junior elite level of gymnastics in 2011, when she was 14 years old. Check out some pictures and videos of the exchange below!
That’s when she received this life-size cutout of Efron that she keeps in her bedroom, “sometimes I used to kiss him on the cheek”.
“We joke that we’re like worldwide boyfriend and girlfriend because we see each other at these global meets, so I think that’s really cool”, she told the publication. Biles didn’t say much on the subject, other than noting that the team sticks up for each other “no matter what”.
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Pint-size Olympian gymnast Simone Biles has told ABC News that she and her teammates are planning to visit Belize on vacation – once she’s gotten back to normal life.
