If Simone Biles was not aware of her newly found global celebrity status following her multi-medal winning performances in Rio, she will be after Sunday evening’s Olympic closing ceremony.
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If you enjoyed this story, read about The U.S. Women’s Gymnastics Team or Simone Biles getting a kiss from Zac Efron.
Even as the Rio Olympics wrapped up on Sunday, Biles wasn’t through making history, as she became the first-ever female gymnast to earn the honor of carrying the United States flag at the closing ceremony.
Team USA members selected Biles to be the flag-bearer at the Maracana Stadium.
The start of the ceremony featured fireworks shot off from the top of the arena and a tribute to Alberto Santos Dumont, an aviation innovator who many Brazilians believe invented the first airplane.
“I’m afraid the flag is going to be too heavy for me”, Biles said in a press conference ahead of the Closing Ceremony.
USA gymnast Simone Biles became quite a star during the 2016 Rio Olympic games – so much so that the closing ceremony was reportedly delayed because so many people wanted to take selfies with her. Shields lifted her Olympic record to 6-0 and stayed unbeaten since the 2012 London Olympics, having also won two world championships and a Pan American Games title.
Video showed Biles, the U.S. flag bearer in the ceremony, repeatedly being stopped by fellow athletes.
Biles’ accolades include 18 individual medals in world and Olympic competition over the last three years.
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Biles is only the second American gymnast to carry the flag in an opening or closing ceremony after Alfred Jochim in 1936.
