Simone Biles was one of Team USA's biggest stars at the 2024 Olympics. The greatest gymnast of all time added four more medals to her Olympic collection, winning gold in the team, all-around and vault competitions before finishing with a silver on the floor.
Gymnastics fans will long remember Biles' performances, which represented the completion of a redemption tour that began after a case of the "twisties" derailed her time at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
Fans will also remember her personality shining through during competition, as the 27-year-old had several viral moments throughout the United States' Olympic run.
Most notably, Biles created an iconic meme by turning her head and staring down a camera after noticing it was filming her as she warmed up for an event.
Here's what to know about that meme and how she is leaning into it with the 2024 Olympics in the rearview mirror.
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Simone Biles head turn meme, explained
Biles' head turn meme originated as she prepared to participate in one of the events in Paris. The top gymnast was sitting on the gym floor stretching and talking to someone off-camera.
Suddenly, she turned her head and looked directly into the camera lens. It was like she had a sixth sense she was being filmed and quickly identified from where the video was being shot.
If she had ever needed another career, Simone would have made an amazing librarian/nun/middle school teacher of any kind, look at that predator vision whip around pic.twitter.com/yhm3PkBGZe
— Holly Anderson 🍇 (@HollyAnderson) August 6, 2024
Biles' quick turn captured the imagination of gymnastics fans, who took to social media to share the clip. They were amazed that she had sniffed out the camera so expeditiously, and many commented that her stare reminded them of a stern look a librarian gives someone who is being too loud.
After the Paris Games, Biles decided to have some fun with her head turn. She teamed up with Netflix to create several more head-turn videos during which she goes about her business before turning back to give the camera a piercing look.
The clips included in the 13-second video are captioned as follows:
- "Hearing someone on their couch has comments on the routine."
- "When the drink he ordered starts looking like the drink I should've ordered."
- "Can I just say something?"
- "When somebody mentions women's sports."
- "The vault when it sees her coming."
Below is a look at the video, via Netflix's X account (formerly Twitter)
Simone Biles be like 👀 pic.twitter.com/StNQa9kXiX
— Netflix (@netflix) August 19, 2024
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Netflix's video was well-received. Fans seemed to particularly like the final scene, as Biles breaks into a big smile after delivering her final head turn.
And the gymnast intimated she had no issues delivering the look on command. Why?
"I actually do this all the time," she wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
I actually do this all the time 🤪 https://t.co/IwpHwEjQxm
— Simone Biles (@Simone_Biles) August 19, 2024
With that in mind, it's a bit surprising that Biles' head turn wasn't already a bigger deal before she broke it out at the Paris Olympics.
But now it has been immortalized both on the Olympic broadcast and social media channels.
