LOOK: Simone Biles makes her Vogue cover debut

American artistic gymnast Simone Biles made her debut Vogue cover. 

The gold medalist graces two covers for the August issue, one in which she is wearing a red sheer dress and, in the other, she is in an orange bathing suit.

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A DREAM 😍😍😍 @voguemagazine 📸: @annieleibovitz

A post shared by Simone Biles(@simonebiles) on Jul 9, 2020 at 3:50pm PDT

In an interview with Abby Aguirre, Biles spoke about beauty standards and how she was discriminated against for her looks. 

She explained how people made rude comments about her when she started competing. “They focused on my hair. They focused on how big my legs were. But God made me this way, and I feel like if I didn’t have these legs or these calves, I wouldn’t be able to tumble as high as I can and have all of these moves named after me.”

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Introducing @simonebiles’s exclusive digital cover for our August issue. With the 2020 Olympics postponed and a shadow hung over American gymnastics, Biles–who is widely regarded as the greatest gymnast of all time—has had to be resilient as never before. When Biles was first photographed in February and interviewed in March for this cover story, America was also a different place. Since then, the coronavirus pandemic has upended regular patterns of life and #BlackLivesMatter protests have occurred from coast to coast. “We need justice for the Black community. With the peaceful protests it’s the start of change, but it’s sad that it took all of this for people to listen,” Biles said. “Racism and injustice have existed for years with the Black community.” At the link in our bio, Vogue reports on a champion looking ahead. Photographed in Feb. 2020 by @annieleibovitz, styled by @phyllis_posnick, written by @abbyaguirre, Vogue, August 2020

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She also encouraged young girls to look beyond their appearances and focus on their craft. 

“No matter how good you are in your sport, in life, in work, the number one thing people talk about is how you look. You’re still going to thrive. You’re going to become somebody amazing and great. You guys are all beautiful, inside and out.”

Biles also shared her skincare and beauty routine.

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As a four-time Olympic gold medalist, @simonebiles has become known for flashing across our screens in a dizzying series of leaps, handsprings, and triple-twisting double backflips, but today the American gymnast and Vogue’s August cover star is offering us a close-up of a different sort. “I’m going to be showing you my skin-care and beauty routine,” Biles says, preparing to pull back the curtain on everything from her winning beauty formula to her ultimate post-competition recovery tricks. Tap the link in our bio for the full video.

A post shared by Vogue(@voguemagazine) on Jul 9, 2020 at 9:40am PDT