time for simone

Texas' Simone Biles scores Time Magazine's Athlete of the Year honor

Simone Biles Time Magazine Athlete of the Year

Simone Biles has again been honored by Time.

Time/Facebook

Simone Biles is truly having a gold medal year.

Take her stalwart Olympic run and not long after, her positively heroic Senate appearance — where she condemned the FBI and U.S. Olympic Committee for their botched handling of the sex abuse against she and her teammates by former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar. Finally, there was the triumphant and sold-out stadium tour where she performed with her Tokyo 2020 teammates.

Now, the longtime Texan has been named Time Magazine’s 2021 Athlete of the Year. This is the second time this year the publication has honored the gymnastics G.O.A.T.; she was previously named to Time’s Most Influential People list in September. The cover image features a simple close-up with Biles looking forward — almost defiantly so.

In its laudatory piece, Time scribes Alice Park and Sean Gregory detail Biles’ tumultuous, July Olympic performance in Tokyo, where she famously made the controversial decision to back out of competition after a case of the “twisties,” which could be described as Biles simply losing her positioning and whereabouts whilst in midair.

Critics (basely) lambasted the 24-year-old for “quitting” while fans united in her need for mental wellness. “Biles’ assuredness in speaking her truth and taking ownership of her fate offered permission for athletes and non-athletes alike to talk more openly about challenges they’d once kept to themselves,” Time notes. Indeed, athletes such as fellow Olympic icon Michael Phelps and NBA star Kevin Love quickly rose to her defense.

“To see her choose herself, we’re going to see the effects of that for the next generation,” Allyson Felix, he most decorated female track-and-field athlete of all time, told Time. “When thinking about role models . . . wow, here is someone showing you can choose your mental health over what the world says is the most important thing.”

Indeed, Biles has proven that she is unafraid to prioritize. She has maintained a relatively low profile since her return to Houston after the Tokyo 2020 games.

Will she compete in another Olympics? Time will tell.

But, if her 32 Olympic and World Championship medals — plus her utterly transcendent poise in the face of global adversity — are any measure, she’s forever a gold-medal champion.

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This week's hot headlines

Michelin Guide awards shine in 5 most-read Dallas stories of the week

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Tatsu Dallas

Editor's note: Restaurants that received Michelin Guide honors were the hottest topic of the week in Dallas and all across Texas. Also of note: The death of a beloved Dallas restaurateur, a new wing joint, and more. Here are the most-read stories of the week. Looking for things to do this weekend? That list is here.

1. More than a dozen Dallas restaurants earn Michelin Guide awards. The winners of the first Michelin Guide awards in Texas have been revealed, with 117 restaurants earning some kind of nod, including 15 one-star establishments. More than two dozen restaurants across Dallas-Fort Worth earned some kind of nod or another, but only one won a star. Then, oops, there was a goof on Michelin's list.

2. Reducetarian Summit had to be unlikeliest convention in Dallas ever. Dallas likes to promote itself as a great place to host conventions, but one of the most unpredictable would have to be the Reducetarian Summit, which took place at the end of October at the Fairmont Hotel in downtown Dallas, where 500 people from around the world met to brainstorm on ways to reduce consumption of animal products.

3. Where to eat in Dallas right now: 10 hot new restaurants for November. This month's installment of Where to Eat is bursting at the seams with newcomers and spinoffs. For November, we've got a vast range of cuisines, from Asian to seafood to the beloved Dallas staple, the Irish pub. To find many cuisines in one spot, there's also a new food-hall near downtown Dallas.

Dallas restaurateur Al Biernat, RIP. Facebook

4. Beloved Dallas restaurateur Al Biernat dies at 69 after ALS battle. Beloved Dallas restaurateur Al Biernat, founder of the acclaimed local steakhouse Al Biernat's, passed away on November 13, following a battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also called ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease; he was 69.

5. Pluckers Wing Bar opens first Dallas location in a decade in Mesquite. A Texas wing staple is bringing the wings to Mesquite: Pluckers, famous for its wings in many flavors, is opening at 1340 N. Peachtree Rd., in the old Joe’s Crab Shack space. According a marketing spokesperson, it's opening in mid-December.