Simone Biles' Family Shares How They Celebrated Her Medal-Winning Spree at the Paris Olympics (Exclusive)

What better way to celebrate your daughter winning four medals at the Paris Olympics than with a dinner cruise on the Seine?

That’s what the parents, family and friends of Simone Biles were doing Monday night after the superstar gymnast completed her sixth and final event at the 2024 Games. A fleet of them — 14 in all — flew to France to support Biles, 27, in her return at these Olympics (minus Biles’ husband, Jonathan Owens, who had to leave early to return to an NFL training camp) — cheers — to the 11-time medalist so far, the most decorated American gymnast in Olympic history.

Speaking to PEOPLE on Aug. 4, Biles’ mom, Nellie Biles, says the plan was to “eat and toast” their champion — “We’re just going to talk and talk and relive the whole thing,” she says — though ” not with Simone, unfortunately .”

“She keeps coming back to [Olympic] Village,” Nellie explains, adding that Simone will be packed with press duties on Monday night.

Jonathan Owens Says He ‘Knew’ Simone Biles Would Dominate Olympics: ‘She Didn’t Disappoint’ (Exclusive)

(L-R) Jonathan Owens, Nellie Biles and Ronald Biles cheer on Simone Biles during the team finals at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

David Niviere/ABACA PRESS/Splash News

At that moment, they only got to see Simone off the competition floor once before, in a brief celebration after she and Team USA secured gold in the team final. And they “FaceTime and chat, mostly on a daily basis,” her mom says.

But on Tuesday, she’ll finally be able to see her daughter one-on-one for a while, “and that’ll be good,” Nellie says with a big smile.

Then Nellie, along with Simone’s dad Ronald Biles, her sister Adria Biles and other members of their family, can finally sit back and reminisce about the gymnast’s record-breaking week, which included golds in the team, all-around and vault finals, and a silver medal in the floor final. . Simone did it all while leading Team USA’s “Golden Girls” — Suni Lee, 21, Jordan Chiles, 23, Jade Carey, 24, and Hezly Rivera, 16 — and being an advocate for mental health.

For more on Simone Biles’ Olympic gold from Jonathan Owens and her mother, Nellie Biles, pick up a copy of PEOPLE on newsstands Friday.

Simone Biles on the cover of PEOPLE.

Simone, who had to withdraw from her main events at the 2020 Tokyo Games due to a “twist”, returned to the Olympics this year with a new mindset, thanks to regular therapy (she yelled at her therapist almost every time after her medal press conference in Paris for their sessions that morning) and calming practices like mediation, which she was caught doing on the sidelines before her events.

“Those were really dark and stressful times,” Nellie says of Tokyo. “Getting through that and being in this place where she’s enjoying doing what she wants to do… this is a rewriting of her story. It’s a rewriting on her terms because she’s in this place that she really may have wanted to be for years.”

Simone Biles, Rebeca Andrade and Jordan Chiles celebrate first all-black gymnastics podium: ‘Super exciting’

Simone Biles after winning the all-around final.

Pascal Le Segretain/Getty

Nellie says she is delighted with Simone’s achievements at these Games.

“It’s been an amazing week,” she says. “I know we came here with our own expectations, but whatever the expectations are, we want him to win a medal, but not putting any conditions on the medals he will get. And I mean, three golds – we’re just elated.”

To find out more about all the Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, come to people.com and check out the live coverage before, during and after the games. And sign up for Going for Gold, our Olympic newsletter, to deliver the biggest stories from the Games straight to your inbox. Watch the Paris Olympics and Paralympics starting July 26 on NBC and Peacock.

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Source: HIS Education