From Paris Olympics star and legendary gymnast Simone Biles’s longtime coach, an insider’s look at the making of a champion

With a Foreword by Simone Biles

The Balance is coach Aimee Boorman’s inside account of the growth of a transcendent athlete and the tumultuous events—from the dictatorial coaching of Martha Karolyi to the sexual abuse by Larry Nassar—that upended the lives of many girls, including Biles.

Simone Biles is one of the greatest athletes of all time. She’s won six all-around world championships and eleven Olympic medals (seven gold). Five gymnastics moves are named after her, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom (the youngest recipient ever), and at an age when most elite gymnasts have retired, Biles is not just still competing—she’s dominating. She’s soaring in Paris this summer, bringing home more Olympic gold. She’s having so much fun that LA 2028 is not out of the question.

But when coach Aimee Borman met her at a gym in Texas, Simone was just a seven-year-old kid. An exceptionally athletically gifted one, to be sure, but not yet great. That would take time, care, love, and balance.

Boorman helped shape Biles, both pushing her and holding her back, protecting both her mental and physical health. “She’s like a second mom to me,” writes Biles, and Boorman was the National Team coach in 2016, where the US—and Biles—took home all-around gold.

The Balance combines unprecedented insider perspective on a legend, newsworthy details on gymnastics history, and compelling lessons on coaching, leadership, and development.

Aimee Boorman, a Chicago native, is a decorated and globally respected gymnastics coach, whose career included 12 years coaching the sport’s all-time greatest, Simone Biles. Boorman was named USA Gymnastics Coach of the Year four times (2013–2016) and US Olympic Committee Coach of the Year (2016). She was head coach of the US Women’s Gymnastics Team at the Rio Olympic Games and coached for the Dutch Gymnastics Federation at the European Championship, the Tokyo Olympic Games, and the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Japan in 2021. Boorman holds a bachelor of science in management and a master of sport from USA Gymnastics, and is actively representing the United States as a FIG Brevet judge. She is also a cofounder of Global Impact Gymnastics Alliance. She has three sons—Jamie, Chris, and Ben—with her husband, James Boorman, whom she has been married to for 25 years. Steve Cooper is a journalist with over two decades of writing, reporting, and editing experience, covering marriage, business, technology, entrepreneurship, and gymnastics, which he has also covered as a photographer. He is the coauthor of Life is Short, Don’t Wait to Dance with former UCLA Gymnastics head coach Valerie Kondos Field, and is COO of GymCastic, the largest gymnastics podcast in the world.