HOUSTON – Simone Biles announced Thursday her new limited-edition Wheaties box cover after extending her contract with the cereal brand company.
The second Wheaties box cover will feature her adoption story, which she says is the catalyst for her continued support and advocacy for children in foster care.
Biles celebrated the new cover by hosting a Breakfast of Champions event Thursday morning, along with her longtime partner, “Friends of the Children,” at a Houston area gym.
Biles has used her platform to advocate for mental health reform and to support efforts to provide education and assistance to children in the adoption and foster care systems. During the event, the gymnast moderated a live Q&A discussion to help drive further awareness around the cause foster care and adoption.
“When I was in their shoes, I never would’ve thought I would’ve accomplished what I’ve accomplished and just to have those people believe in me, it made all the difference. So, hopefully they get to see that,” Biles said turning to the kids in the audience, “Just know you guys can break any boundaries.”
Friends of the Children is also opening its first chapter in Houston. They partner professional mentors with foster care children around age four, all the way through their high school graduation.
Here are some of the questions the kids asked Simone:
Question: “Would you ever try for the Olympics again?”
Simone: I’ll be in Paris no matter what, I just don’t know if it will be on the floor yet or in the audience cheering on the girls, but I’ll be in Paris.
Question: “How did you get through the mental blocks when practicing or competing?”
Simone: It’s a process and we would kind of go back to the basics if I ever had a mental block or anything like that... Even in Tokyo, it wasn’t necessarily a mental block, my mind and body just weren’t in sync. So, even whenever I came back a little bit my coach would just say ‘ok let’s go back to basics.’”
Basketball great Michael Jordan and boxing icon Muhammad Ali are also featured on the other boxes as of this writing in this series. You can see those collector boxes here.