Simone Biles is busy training for the 2020 Summer Olympics, but that hasn’t stopped her from adding an edgy new piercing to her growing collection of body art.
The 22-year-old gymnast, who already has several body piercings, took to Instagram on Monday to show off what looks like a sternum piercing. In the snapshot, Simone is wearing a low-cut black wrap top that reveals the sparkly diamond on her chest.
Simone didn’t mention the new piercing when she captioned the image, and instead, she wrote: ‘kinda unbothered.’
Surprise! Simone Biles, 22, took to Instagram on Monday to share a photo of herself wearing a low-cut black wrap top that reveals what appears to be a sternum piercing
See it? It’s unclear when she got the piercing, which takes about 6 to 12 weeks to heal, but it was visible in another Instagram photo she shared earlier this month
In less than 24 hours, the snap has scored more than 137,000 likes as well as plenty of questions and comments from her fans.
‘Glowing,’ wrote Simone’s boyfriend, former gymnast Stacey Ervin Jr.
Cheer star Gabi Butler commented: ‘BREATHTAKING.’
Others couldn’t resist asking the Olympic gold medalist about her piercing.
‘Is that like a sternum piercing or something? So elegant. Did it hurt?’ one fan asked.
Look of love: When the Olympic gymnast shared the close-up photo of her sternum piercing, her boyfriend, former gymnast Stacey Ervin Jr., commented: ‘Glowing’
‘Can you have piercings in the Olympics?’ another wanted to know.
According to Healthline, a sternum piercing is a surface piercing, meaning it has a separate entry and exit point in the surface layer of the skin.
‘They’re anchored using barbells shaped like open staples or curved rods. The bar or rod is inserted underneath the skin, and the jewelry’s decorative tops sit on the skin’s surface,’ the site explains.
It’s unclear when Simone got the sternum piercing, which takes about 6 to 12 weeks to heal, but it was visible in another Instagram picture that she shared earlier this month.
In the snapshot, she is wearing a black crop top that reveals her toned abs and belly button ring and ripped jeans.
‘My doctor says I need glasses,’ she captioned the playful image.
Simone also has a nose piercing and several ear piercings in addition to the studs in her sternum and belly button. However, when she is competing, the only jewelry that is visible is the studs in her ears.
Earlier this month, Simone gave her fans a behind-the-scenes look at her training while sharing a video of herself performing a vault that may be too risky for the Olympics: a Yurchenko double pike.
A Yurchenko — named after Natalia Yurchenko, a Russian gymnast who first performed the skill in the early 1980s — begins with a single flip.
Busy: Simone, pictured at the world championships in October, is training for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo
Winner: Simone, who is now the most decorated gymnast ever, also has a nose piercing, belly button piercing, and several ear piercings
The Washington Post explains that gymnasts increase the difficulty of the move by adding twists, but Simone takes things one step further by adding a second flip while in the pike position (hips bent and knees straight).
If the vaulter doesn’t rotate enough during the double clip, it could result in head or neck injuries. While a handful of male gymnasts have landed this vault, no female gymnast has ever performed it in a competition.
In the four-second clip, Simone runs and does a round-off onto the springboard and back handspring onto the vault before launching into her double flips.
When she shared the video, she wrote, ‘2020?’ with six eye emoji, leaving fans wondering if she is practicing the vault for the upcoming Summer Olympics in Toyko.
Crazy: Earlier this month, Simone gave her fans a behind-the-scenes look at her training while sharing a video of herself performing a Yurchenko double pike
Amazing: In the four-second clip, Simone runs and does a round-off onto the springboard and back handspring onto the vault before launching into her double flips
The footage has been viewed more than 2.4 million times, and what amazed most people was the fact that it looks like Simone had enough height to safely land the vault on a mat.
In October, Simone became the most decorated gymnast ever after she won her 24th medal on the beam at the world championships.
She and Belarusian men’s gymnast Vitaly Scherbo were tied with 23 medals before she broke the record. Less than two hours later, she took home her 25th medal.
Of her 24 career world medals, 18 are gold, against 12 of 23 for Vitaly.
Simone hasn’t confirmed whether she’ll continue to compete after next year’s Olympics, so this may have been her last world championships.