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Simone Biles says she was once ticketed by an officer who was later an Olympic escort

Biles said the officer “felt bad” and would have accepted Olympic training as a good excuse for speeding

simone biles

American gymnast Simone Biles poses wearing her bronze medal from balance beam competition during artistic gymnastics at the 2020 Olympics, Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2021, in Tokyo.

AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko

By Suzie Ziegler

Olympians. They’re just like us.

In an Instagram post this week, gymnastics superstar Simone Biles said she was once ticketed for speeding. According to Biles, she was pulled over while driving to practice for the 2016 Rio Olympics, Insider reported.

But that wasn’t quite the end of it. Biles said the same officer was later “randomly assigned” to her homecoming escort through the airport after she won four gold medals in Rio.

“He felt so bad, but he didn’t know,” Biles wrote on Instagram. “And I wasn’t about to say, ‘hey, please no, I’m training for the Olympics.’”

According to Biles, the officer said he would have accepted Olympic training as a good excuse.

“He said if I would have said that it would have worked,” Biles wrote. “Learned my lesson....”

Biles recently competed at the Tokyo Olympics, winning silver and bronze. The two-time Olympian notably withdrew from five scheduled events, sparking a larger conversation about athletes’ mental health, according to Insider.

NEXT: What public safety professionals can learn from Olympians

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